To the editor:

Doug Burger’s letter published Feb. 18 sure was a good read. Mr. Burger, if your idea of sharing wealth is such a good one, why do you need the government’s guns to make it happen? Your letter was right to compare your philosophy to a prehistoric clan that uses physical force to equalize life’s burden. You’re forgetting that when you banish the “haves” from your clan, your clan dies of starvation like a North Korean farmer, and the “haves” never have a problem building a society without you.

Mr. Burger, when you compare the share of the nation’s wealth between now and 1983, you use a number, dollars, not the things the “have-nots” have willingly bought from the “haves” in that time: satellite dishes, microwave ovens, cell phones, PlayStations, computers, etc. Things that your bottom 40 percent now own, and can’t live without; things they couldn’t afford in 1983.

Why is it the people who scream loudest when government and the economy come together (like at Halliburton), are always first to demand the government manage the economy (against a woman’s right to choose Wal-Mart)?

Tom Dangermond,

Lawrence