OPINION:
The Founders and patriots from ’We the Private Sector’ created America to protect their own unalienable rights (“Progressive caucus backs four-day workweek bill,” Web, Dec. 8). Their spiritual descendants continue to earn profits the government takes to pay its bills.
It is popular and correct to say the top 50% of taxpayers pay 88% of the taxes, but that can be misleading. CEOs paying taxes had zero “sweat equity” in the profits which taxes represent. So what happens if Congress orders a 32-hour workweek?
Assume an employee provides a government service and receives X dollars for a 40-hour workweek. If Congress reduces the workweek to 32 hours and the need for the government service remains, government must hire 20% more employees at the X-dollar salary. The added government cost can only be paid by government taking profits earned by workers in the private sector.
Sweat equity is the property of 130 million to 150 million workers in the private sector. Theirs is an unalienable right and a miracle of capitalism as it has evolved and is evolving in the oldest extant government on Earth.
JOE BOYETT
Montgomery, Ala.
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