Letter: Maybe everybody should pay 4 percent

I was wondering, is this the society of my forefathers? That in this day and age that when I take my children to the ball game, that I not only have to pay for them, but I also have to pay for the X amount of children who happen to be standing outside the park because their parents think that they can get something for free. Well, I was taught that the only thing that is free is freedom itself and the right that anyone can be what they want if they apply themselves.

I keep on hearing that only a few of us are to pay 4 percent, if your business makes $50,000 a year or more. Then I thought to myself, why shouldn't everybody who makes $50,000 a year pay this 4 percent, like the lawyers, doctors, judges, professors, states persons (had to be politically correct) union bosses, accountants, IRS personnel and the rest of the professionals that make well over that amount, but do not have a business, so don't have to pay their share. Heck, we can even make our employees work mandatory overtime so that they can make the $50,000. I'm sure that if you put it on the ballot, wording it that way, that all the good people that have proposed this agenda would gladly come forward to pay their fair share. I'm sure that the teachers unions would get a big round of applause every time they tell their members, "Good news! We got that 2 percent raise that everyone was hoping for, but the bad news is that everyone who now makes over $50,000 will have to pay 4 percent of their yearly income back to your union."

Man oh man, just think, with the cost of living rate moving the way its been, in five to 10 years, everybody in the state of Nevada will be paying this tax. Who are these people who are dividing this great country into pieces? I would like, just one time, to see the income tax reports of the people who propose this tax before we vote on this proposition. I bet they all make more than $50,000 a year. They are using the "if it's for free, it's for me" theory. Divide and conquer.

Nothing is for free, people. They are taking your pursuit and your children's pursuit to find happiness. None of your children will even try to have their own business because who's to say where the percentage rate will be? Business pays most of the states taxes as it is and the good people of this state pay all kinds of hidden taxes; 19th highest in the nation. The state has to work with a budget. So work with it! Who gives the union the right to impose taxes anyway? Where in our Constitution does it say that you have the right to pursue a goal but that somebody has to ride on your coat tail?

Don't divide this great nation into categories. There is only one socialist state in this great union, and its capital lies 100 or so miles west. If you think that even our poorest people in this great state of Nevada will put up with this kind of division, us against them tactics, well I think you're wrong. Don't tread on me! We the people! And most of all, justice; justice for all.

MIKE LINEHAN

Gardnerville