To the editor:

In your Feb. 28 issue, Harry Shaffer explains the economic law of diminishing utility by saying “if you had no shoes, a pair of shoes would be invaluable to you, but if you had 20 pairs, one more pair would have little meaning.” Obviously Mr. Shaffer has never met my wife.

But seriously, I am concerned about the long-range effects of our continuous overburdening of higher-income earners. The progressive tax system may be fair up to a point, but I think that point has been greatly exceeded if 10 percent of our citizens pay 60 percent of our taxes, while 40 percent pay no taxes at all. Shaffer’s argument that higher-income people spend their money on luxuries, conveniences and investments seems unimportant to me, as long as they’re spending.

Someone has to provide those conveniences and luxuries, and that creates jobs. Someone uses the money they invest to create and expand businesses. This invigorates the economy and encourages people to fend for themselves instead of saying, “Thank you for the fish, Mr. Shaffer. Maybe I’ll learn to fish myself someday.”

The United States has always been known as the land of opportunity. I fear that our taxation system is changing us into the land of opportunists.

Tony Miller,

Lawrence