Is 'Fewer Makers, More Takers' an Inevitable Change?
It's not my opinion, as I'm sure it isn't Stephen Moore's ("," op-ed, April 1), that anyone who works for the government isn't doing a good job or is overpaid. It's simply that the rest of us cannot afford their cost.</br></br>While one could point to numerous inefficiencies and inequities that a burdensome infrastructure imposes, the area that troubles me the most is the intrusion, frustration and waste inflicted by our regulators. The problem is that they think they have to do something to justify their existence by imposing their will or bias, or exhibiting a "them versus us" mentality.</br></br>Marshall Sterman</br></br>Swampscott, Mass.</br></br>Mr. Moore asserts that winning the future requires growing the part of the economy that makes things. Yet he acknowledges that falling employment in the "making" sectors of the economy is due in considerable measure to "hugely beneficial productivity improvements in such traditional industries as farming, manufacturing, financial services and telecommunications." How are we supposed to grow the part of the economy that makes things when it is shrinking because of its own success?