Wealth

I enjoyed Yagenah Jane Torbati's article "Maryland is wealthiest state, Census data show" (Dec. 14), but I wish to take issue with the choice of the word "wealthiest" in the headline and the article. "Wealth" is defined as "a great quantity or store of money, valuable possessions, property, or other riches," which is quite distinct from household income, which is what the Census Bureau measured. Thus it is possible for Maryland to have the highest median household income without having the highest median level of household wealth.

Eleven different players scored a goal in No. 4 Stevenson's 23-7 shellacking of Lebanon Valley in a Middle Atlantic Conference tournament semifinal Wednesday night. That kind of diversity has not been limited to just one game. For the second year in a row, the Mustangs have 10 players who have each scored 10 goals this season and boast an offense that entered the week ranked sixth in Division III in scoring with a 15.6 goals-per-game average. (That average was raised to 16.0 after the victory over the Dutchmen.)

It burns me to no end when I hear conservative Republican types complain that this current government is re distributing wealth and how it is not and "American ideology" ("Angry Americans want responsible government," Readers respond, Oct. 7). I have news for him and all the other head-in-the-sand conservatives out there. Since 1980, conservatives and Republicans have done nothing but redistribute wealth in this country! They have raided, robbed, ransacked and ruined the middle class, stolen its wealth as well as wealth from the working class and given it to the richest Americans under the ridiculous ruse called "Trickle Down Economics.

Each week, The Baltimore Sun publishes a Q&A with an area college lacrosse player to help you become more acquainted with the player and his/her team. Today's guest is Johns Hopkins midfielder Sarah Taylor, from Farnham, England. Taylor, who leads the Blue Jays in goals with 36, played for the Scottish national team in the 2007 under-19 world championships and for England in 2011. This summer, she will play for England in the elite World Cup. Taylor also has 23 draw controls and 17 ground balls for the Blue Jays, who visit Ohio State in the regular-season finale Sunday before hosting the American Lacrosse Conference tournament at Homewood Field beginning May 2. The junior is majoring in biology with a focus on pre-med.

Thanks for the fascinating article about the Bradley Foundations financed by donations originating from the Koch and Scaife billions ("The right's $350 million idea train," Dec. 18). Too bad this wealth cannot be devoted to good works like alleviating poverty, ignorance and disease, as the Rockefeller and Carnegie fortunes did in the past and Gates, Buffet and Soros families are doing at present. Instead, the Bradley Foundation is acting as a "malefactor of great wealth," as Teddy Roosevelt famously put it, to peddle its extreme right-wing ideology.

Editor: Despite all the spin surrounding Mitt Romney's recent comment about the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay income taxes, there is an undeniable, sobering truth that lies in that number. And that's not the only number. While tax-and-spend politicians love to talk about the wealthy needing to "pay their fair share" of taxes, they seldom mention that approximately 70 percent of all federal income taxes are already paid by the wealthiest 10 percent of taxpayers. That's right, one out of 10 Americans must bear more than two-thirds of the nation's income tax bill while approximately half of Americans (the aforementioned 47 percent)

This business about the Ravens' salary cap is way beyond my comprehension ("Raven's tight salary cap could squeeze out playoff star Anquan Boldin if he doesn't accept less pay," March 10). But I know one thing: The more money one player receives, the less there is for the others. So I have a suggestion for Joe Flacco and his agent: Now that their record salary deal assures Mr. Flacco of the "respect I deserve," perhaps he can see fit to donate some of his millions to the team salary pool in order to help retain the many players who were absolutely key to the Ravens' victories in the playoffs and the Super Bowl . To ask players like Anquan Boldin to take a cut in pay after what he and others did for the team defies all logic and fairness.

"Shattuck sees 44 percent increase in package. " This was the headline in The Sun on Saturday, April 16. The accompanying article pointed out that Constellation Energy Group CEO Mayo A. Shattuck received $15.7 million in compensation for 2010, even as his company lost $1 billion. Something seems amiss here. Every year Mr. Shattuck gets a generous raise whether he does good or bad in his job. In February, 1994, Constellation/Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., retired about 800-plus employees.

WASHINGTON - Americans are recovering their shrunken wealth - gradually. Household net worth rose last quarter, mainly because the healing economy boosted stock portfolios. But the gain was slight and was less than in the previous two quarters. The Federal Reserve said Thursday that net worth rose 1.3 percent in the fourth quarter to $54.2 trillion. It marked the third straight quarter of gains. Even with that increase, Americans' net worth would have to rise an additional 21 percent to get back to its pre-recession peak of $65.9 trillion.

MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blaketold Baltimore lawmakers Friday morning that any shift of the state's teacher pension costs to local governments must take into account the relative wealth of the jurisdiction -- saying the failure to do so is her "biggest disappointment" with Gov.Martin O'Malley's plan for a 50-50 split. The mayor said she would prefer not to see any shift of pension costs from the state, which now pays 100 percent of the tab, to the 23 counties and Baltimore. However, she said she understood that the state faces its own budget challenges and that the change has been coming a long time.

Four years into a so-called recovery, and we're still below recession levels in every important respect except the stock market. A measly 88,000 jobs were created in March, and total employment remains some 3 million below its pre-recession level. Labor-force participation is at its lowest level since 1979. The recovery isn't just losing steam. It never had much steam to begin with. That's because so much of our debate over economic policy has been beside the point. On one side have been Keynesians -- followers of the great British economist John Maynard Keynes -- who want more government spending and lower interest rates in order to fuel demand.

When senior midfielder Ryan Clarke was lost for the remainder of the season because of a ruptured spleen during a 7-5 win against Widener on Feb. 23, the thought was that Salisbury's already-beleaguered offense was in more trouble. But the absence of Clarke - who was on the Tewaaraton Award watch list last month - has spurred the development of his teammates and spread the wealth around the Sea Gulls (9-2), who have moved up to No. 7 in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll.

This business about the Ravens' salary cap is way beyond my comprehension ("Raven's tight salary cap could squeeze out playoff star Anquan Boldin if he doesn't accept less pay," March 10). But I know one thing: The more money one player receives, the less there is for the others. So I have a suggestion for Joe Flacco and his agent: Now that their record salary deal assures Mr. Flacco of the "respect I deserve," perhaps he can see fit to donate some of his millions to the team salary pool in order to help retain the many players who were absolutely key to the Ravens' victories in the playoffs and the Super Bowl . To ask players like Anquan Boldin to take a cut in pay after what he and others did for the team defies all logic and fairness.

"Cheat, cheat, never beat. " Remember that catchy, foreboding maxim drilled into us as kids? It's comforting to believe cheaters never win and winners never cheat. Unfortunately, there's ample evidence that cheating is rampant in almost every sphere of American life. And for every reported story of cheaters getting busted - be they professional athletes who use banned substances or those who illegally manipulate markets for profit - you can bet there's at least one case of somebody who escaped detection.

A few days ago, I changed my voter registration to "unaffiliated" after having been a Republican for almost 50 years. Why? Simple. The GOP is being grossly irresponsible in not supporting more taxes on the wealthy. And I'm not talking about income redistribution. I'm talking about wealth. I have worked all my life as a teacher, and I have worked harder than even Bill "You know that" O'Reilly. I live modestly, and all I want from the government is my Social Security and my Medicare.

President Barack Obama's fiscal cliff failure and his mismanagement of the budget plus his total failure to show any kind of leadership will cost the average American family over $2,200 more in taxes in 2013. This Obama plan must be stopped now at all costs You must remember that President Obama ran his campaign on the lies that Republicans are captive to the rich and are out of touch with the middle class. He was elected through his lies, and now we are supposed to pay to support his redistribution of wealth and his socialistic policies and failure to manage the economy and out-of-control government spending?

Mitt Romney says that those who advocate redistribution of wealth are un-American, so I guess the following historical extract is un-American, too: "It should seem then that it must be because of the enormous wealth, which places them above attention to the increase of their revenues, that I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable, but [that] the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property.

Did you know that the rich have more money because the rich have more money? It's a fact of life. It's how the world works. I have been so enlightened by the vice president of a project management company with a global profile, a headquarters in Virginia, an office in Maryland, lots of government contracts and a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The signature on his e-mail indicated a PhD, too, so he must know what he's talking about. I'll call him Doc for the purpose of this column.

Since World War II, Americans have tended to elect middle class presidents. With the exception of the two Bushes - the first of whom lost his second election, the second of whom "lost" his first - both parties succeeded by nominating candidates from modest backgrounds: Republicans Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were hardly products of affluence, nor were Democrats Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. Mitt Romney was born to both political and economic privilege.

Thomas F. Schaller argues in his column that the wealth disparity between rich and poor is evidence that socialism is not taking hold in this country ("Socialism: the problem that just isn't there," Oct. 3). What he ignores is that highly planned and regulated economies are the very kind that allow cronyism and collusion between government and industry to flourish, enriching the few at the expense of the many. History teaches us that socialism is never true to its stated objectives.