Profit earners, not taxpayers

OPINION:

So President Biden is begging for $22 billion in “taxpayer dollars” to spend on COVID-19 (“Biden prods Congress for more money for COVID-19 testing, treatments, booster shots,” Web, March 30). It is past time to change the term “taxpayer dollars” to “profit earners’ dollars” to recognize the true role of Karl Marx’s “wage earners” or proletariat social class. America’s multinational economy has grown beyond the simple industries of Marx’s day and its unions now have government powers they use to claim more corporate profits.

Just 0.3% of America’s six million private-sector firms employ 53% of the workforce, with 59% of payrolls and over 60% of profits. Those are profits earned by over 153 million private-sector workers, not by the entity that pays taxes. Taxes paid on public-sector earnings are distinct from private-sector taxes, which come directly from profits earned by producing and selling.

Taxes are profits before they’re taken by government, and “profit earners” have an unalienable property right to profits before government. Recognize that right by using “profit earners” instead of “taxpayers.”

JOE BOYETT

Montgomery, Alabama