Heed The Laws Of Economics

To the Editor:

I applaud your editorial and concerns with respect to the funding for our educational system. However, it does not address the question of why and how we have this problem in the first place. It is easy to blame it on the ongoing economic crisis without looking behind the façade which it exposed.

The façade is that we can spend without concern year after year, more public money than can reasonably be collected.

If we do not heed the laws of economics, we may face the unthinkable, namely a series of economic fiascos like the one we are in now, a disastrous devaluation of our currency, and with it our way of life. We need not look far for an example. The Soviet Union is no more. It was not military or political forces which brought it to its knees, but economic excesses with respect to its military spending.

We will fare no better if we neglect this lesson from history.

It is time for us here in Newtown to take stock of our own spending in town and not look for more help from the state which has its own problems it must correct.

A major part of our problem in my opinion is not to be found in waste projects, but how we fund some of our public employees. It is so easy to grant generous benefits when the money is not your own and you are looking for political support. I urge our politicians to work even-handed for all of us and not favor select groups.

As a starter, I would like to see the town publish the average cost per person of their public employee sectors, including the cost of pensions and health benefits. The people of the town have a right to know where their money goes before we vote for the budget. I have been told by one person that he does not even use his Medicare benefits because his wife, a state employee, has such a generous plan. I am retired and on Medicare and wish I could say the same and I am not alone. It is time for a change, a change back to Economics I and fairness for all. We do not wish our grandchildren to face the unthinkable.

Oscar Berendsohn

34 Appleblossom Lane, Newtown                            October 19, 2010