Editor, Daily Nexus:

In an April 26 letter to the editor (The Reader’s Voice, “Students Should Back Bush’s Tax Cuts for Rich”), Justin M. Ruhge put forward the following point of view: It is unfair to disproportionately tax the rich in favor of the poor. I’d like to present a different point of view: You’re being a baby. Let’s compare some lifestyles, shall we?

Take a family whose yearly income (before taxes) is $250,000. That’s not a huge amount – each spouse could be making $125,000. They have 2.3 children, a $750,000 home, three fine automobiles, and one dog – Rex. If the evil, lying and dishonest Democrats were to impose a 25 percent tax on this family, their net income would be $187,500. That’s a pretty considerable drop, but what would be the effect? Little Emily has to settle for a used Lexus? No yacht this year? They’ll have to save up one year longer to get that summer home? Let’s flip and look at the tail end of this coin.

Take a family whose yearly income is $15,000. Naaah! No family’s income is that low! How about a family in which both spouses work at a Pictsweet mushroom plant? Two point three children living with another 4.3-person family in a two-person apartment, a set of monthly bus passes, and … oops! Couldn’t afford Rex. Let’s be “fair” and impose the same 25 percent tax on them. Their income goes down to $11,250. That’s less than $1,000 per month. Specifically, it’s $218 per person.

Could you live on that? Do you think that’s what people working 50- or 60-hour weeks should make? After each member of that family pays their share of the rent and utilities, do you honestly think any one of them can afford any kind of health insurance? How often do you think they can even afford to go to Payless to buy that fly pair of Eastside or Easy Spirit shoes they’ve been wanting? How about some Nikes? The bottom line is that more people than one might like to imagine are living a rock-bottom life as it is.

Why should others have to pay for them? The people who really pay the taxes shouldn’t get the shaft for it! Right? Wrong my friend. Proportionately, the poor are paying their fair share of taxes. As you go down this country’s economic ladder, the proportion of taxable purchases people make gets higher and higher. In English, the less cash you have each month, the more of it you have to spend to make ends meet, and every time you go up to the register Uncle Sam gets to pick your pocket. And it doesn’t feel pretty. People on the higher end of the scale, however, can afford to hide some of their cash in untaxable little corners of the stock market and watch it grow.

So, as Mr. Ruhge wrote, a lot of us Gauchos may very well be classified as rich some day. But when that day comes, if I consider those Republican tax cuts a blessing, I hope I die from eating bad mushrooms, because I don’t think I’d be worthy of breathing the same air as any of the hard-working poor. Think about this the next time you see someone collecting cans off the streets of Isla Vista on a Saturday morning.

IVAN PEREZ