With all due respect to Jay Hancock, his recent statement regarding how high income Maryland residents should be taxed illustrates a number of fallacies that drive policies that will destroy this nation:
"Should the 1 percent at the top of the pole pay much more in personal income tax to help rescue the society that has been so good to them? Of course. But that taxation needs to be done at the federal level, where there is less opportunity to avoid it." Mr. Hancock writes ("Something's making Maryland's millionaires leave," Dec. 4).
Aside from the fact that Mr. Hancock's namesake is probably still spinning in his grave as I write this, I would make three other points.
First, millionaires became millionaires because they offered a good or service that other people wanted. They owe society nothing from these transactions. Their sole obligation was to the people with whom they entered into a contract to provide the good or service.
Second, the idea that the government should be taking from these people to give to society will eventually, if left unchecked, stifle any desire by anyone to work hard to make money. No one wants to see the fruits of their labors taken from them to give to others except the recipients.
Third, Mr. Hancock clearly has no clue why the 9th and 10th amendments to the U.S. Constitution were put in the document to begin with, if he is advocating that the federal government take these people's money and then dole it out to the states. I invite him to spend some time educating himself on the premise behind not only those two amendments, but the entire document itself.
If too many of these producers nationwide decide to "Go Galt" there will be nothing left to steal and our country will collapse from within. The lawmakers in Maryland are seeing that phenomena play out as people leave the state in order to hold on to more of what they worked for all their lives.
Until the elected leaders figure out this basic premise of human nature, Maryland, and the federal government, will continue their disastrous policies.
Mark L. Alexander, Cumberland
The writer is currently stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.