Editor’s Note: The letter below is addressed to Mary Ellen Marino, in response to her letter in the June 25 Mailbox [“Christie Wants to Balance Budget on Pensions of ‘Retirees Like Me’ and Current State 

Workers”].

Re your letter to the June 25 edition of Town Topics: I believe your goals are admirable and I appreciate your pursuing them for the common good. Your letter caused me to reflect on our great country in the mid-1940s and 1950s when things were very different and simpler. Earlier, the United States was on ascendant paths in virtually every dimension. Now, we find that globalization has changed the world from something akin to a conventional game of chess to something like a game of five dimensional chess (which is “difficult” to comprehend). The economic decisions we take in the U.S. reverberate and cause reactions and countermeasures around the world. I believe that change that focuses solely on one or on a few factor(s), let’s say fairness in the U.S., is too simplistic and potentially dangerous to be given serious consideration. For example, I believe your proposal to raise corporate taxes to achieve the goals you enumerate is naive and misguided. If this proposal is based on data and seen through the lens of one or more economic theories, it is a theory I am not familiar with. This economic move on the part of the U.S. is bound to hurt many more of our citizens than it helps, presuming it would help anyone.

Thanks for your good work. I believe the main threat to our society is not the kind of proposals you advance but the political illiteracy of a large segment of the society.

Christopher R. Barbrack

Dodds Lane