SAXTONS RIVER — In his letter, Darren Tessitore complains about the Brattleboro Retreat stealing “our hard-earned tax dollars.”
I have heard quite a few of these references to “hard- earned tax dollars” in recent years, mainly from the affluent Republican Wall Street crowd, such as investment bankers, hedge fund managers, and their ilk.
They constantly complain about any public expenditures to improve the nation's social services, but they applaud and encourage almost unlimited public expenditure on disastrous wars overseas.
Many of us will recall the “hard-earned tax dollars” filched from so many productive and hard-working people by the creators of “subprime mortgages” and “collateralized debt obligations,” those arcane bits of paper dreamed up by chair-bound financial con artists.
The people who really earn their income in our society are the farm laborers, the factory workers, the police officers, the firefighters, the nurses, the school teachers, the shop assistants, the waitstaff, and the social and mental health workers - like those at the Brattleboro Retreat.
If Mr. Tessitore falls into this hard-working category, I tip my hat to him; if not, I suggest he keep his ill-considered remarks to himself.