America should invest

Editor,

How can we stand here and say that making an excess amount of money is more important than caring for individuals with less means, money and opportunity. We must invest in human capital!

I think everyone recognizes that former President Ronald Reagan’s fiscal policy of “trickle-down” economics failed miserably. While many got rich, many more became destitute and impoverished.

The wealthy individuals within our society can drive only so many cars, live in so many houses and eat so much food. Their consumption does not fund better jobs or better living environments for the rest of us. They do not employ that many more people, and they do not pay their employees that much better.

While these statements do not stand for every business, they do encompass the majority of the corporate business community.

We need a progressive tax system that encourages people who have more to help the government help the have-nots. To distribute these funds properly, we need enough service workers and support staff to reach out to those unlucky individuals, learn what they need and educate them on what society expects from them.

Women and their children are the two groups that need our help and encouragement the most. Women need the most help in self-reliance and family planning. No one should have more children than they can support. In many cases, it is social pressure and lack of information that cause unneeded and, in many cases, unwanted births. World population growth is phenomenal.

Abortion exists everywhere. Wherever abortion is illegal, maternal mortality is rampant. What do we want? Do we want women to die because they have their ability to choose taken away, or do we want educated individuals who accept their role in society and display social responsibility?

If we cannot acknowledge that the women are as important, if not more important, to our survival as a species, then we might as well give up all battles for equal rights. Because there is no equality until all women are included.

Equality is what life is about! Animals live by survival of the fittest. If we are no better than animals, we should go back to living off roots and varmints. I fear that if we wait too much longer to fight for this cause, it will be too late to turn back from the road we are traveling down. We will be doomed, and maybe the Earth with us!

- Jeremy Toulouse

UNM student