ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

RE: “GOVERNMENT SHOULD Not Set Wages” column by John Dendahl

…. American capitalism has a long history of human exploitation. Dendahl seems not to understand that capitalism is an economic system that exists within, and is subservient to, our political system of representative democracy. Politics is about people. Economics is about generating wealth. Capitalism is a good economic system for generating wealth but a lousy one for distributing it.

When wealth is not distributed, that is when wealth — and, along with it, power — are allowed to concentrate in the hands of a few, you get an oligarchy. When our government sets wages, it is acting to prevent the concentration of wealth and power and thereby is preserving our representative democracy. That is not only government’s prerogative, it is government’s duty. …

ANNE KASS
Albuquerque

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor

If this thing passed, the bottom line would be that businesses would raise prices enough to cover it and then everyone pays more. Communism failed in the Soviet Union and now even China is leaning toward capitalism to revive its economy. Why some people are trying to revive communism in America is a mystery to me. …

I may not be correct about what the answer to this problem is, but I am sure I know what it is not. It is not to rob people who educated themselves and got a good job to give money to those who did not have time to get an education and become a viable and desirable job seeker.

DANNY OLIVAS
Albuquerque