Never been a communist, never been a socialist, and anyone who would favors totalitarianism shouldn't be allowed to roam about without a nurse. I have always favored capitalism. Oh, sure, I knew there were some inequities, but I believed those advocates of capitalism who claimed that everything would eventually work out (i.e., when the government stopped interfering).

I've grown older and wiser since those days, and I've seen a lot more of the way things actually work. Through reading history and through general observation of the world, I've seen that those main agents of capitalism—businesses and corporations—rum amok like a tribe of robber-barons unless they are held in check by government regulation (which, of course, is why the corporations concentrate greatly on buying politicians with lavish campaign contributions and other bribes—what else can you call it?). Capitalism, it turns out, is institutionalize greed.

And I now have an idea of the way other countries work out their problems, and manage public services:   good, efficient mass transit systems, universal health care, services that show a regard and respect for human dignity, such as taking care of the poor and those elderly who are unable to care for themselves, and a host of other manifestations of simple decency. Believe me, America is not the "shining city on the hill" that's supposed to be an example to the rest of the world.

Communism? No! But if getting this country's socks pulled up and getting it to become one of the civilized countries on this planet takes a dose of socialism, then so be it, say I!

Stigweard has the right of it.

Don Firth