ITALIAN ECONOMY
Reader disagrees with guest editorial
Don Brunell's guest editorial of May 4 asks that we look at Italy as a cautionary tale of what might happen if we let government regulation get out of control. Brunell is once again participating in a misguided conservative attempt to support the continuation and expansions of economic policies which are the basis of most conservative policy today. The problem is, they haven't worked at all.
Not only have tax cuts and deregulation failed to get us out of this recession, they are often viewed as exactly what got us into this recession. "It's the housing bubble, stupid." I fail to understand the continued insistence that deregulation and lessening of government involvement are the magic bullet when it's so clear that, as Brunell states, we know where that road leads. Recession, wildly irresponsible actions by banks, multi-billion dollar oil spills, the Madoff scandal, and other highlights of the new millennium are the direct outcomes of deregulation. And yet this silly mantra: "Deregulate and lower business taxes," keeps popping up. Don't buy it.
I challenge Brunell to provide a solid example of a country where deregulation has succeeded in spurring a better economy, and where the average person is actually better off. China? Really? Do you want to be a worker in China? Do you want to try to breathe the air in China? And even China is in the midst of an economic slump.
Arguments like Brunell's are no better than those of any charlatan who uses a crisis to try to further his own economic needs. It's a rip-off. Don't buy it.
Steve Close
Moses Lake
Don Brunell's guest editorial of May 4 asks that we look at Italy as a cautionary tale of what might happen if we let government regulation get out of control. Brunell is once again participating in a misguided conservative attempt to support the continuation and expansions of economic policies which are the basis of most conservative policy today. The problem is, they haven't worked at all.
Not only have tax cuts and deregulation failed to get us out of this recession, they are often viewed as exactly what got us into this recession. "It's the housing bubble, stupid." I fail to understand the continued insistence that deregulation and lessening of government involvement are the magic bullet when it's so clear that, as Brunell states, we know where that road leads. Recession, wildly irresponsible actions by banks, multi-billion dollar oil spills, the Madoff scandal, and other highlights of the new millennium are the direct outcomes of deregulation. And yet this silly mantra: "Deregulate and lower business taxes," keeps popping up. Don't buy it.
I challenge Brunell to provide a solid example of a country where deregulation has succeeded in spurring a better economy, and where the average person is actually better off. China? Really? Do you want to be a worker in China? Do you want to try to breathe the air in China? And even China is in the midst of an economic slump.
Arguments like Brunell's are no better than those of any charlatan who uses a crisis to try to further his own economic needs. It's a rip-off. Don't buy it.
Steve Close
Moses Lake