To the Editor:
Rodney Gibson (August 31 “Rhyme or Reason”) asserts, “The hoarding of cash by wealthy individuals and corporations is the primary reason for our economic quagmire.”
What a profoundly ignorant statement.
Suppose for one second a vast evil conspiracy of wealthy people and companies plotted to hoard and hide their vast fortunes from the masses.
Just where would they hoard and hide all that cash? Under their mattresses, earning zero return, brought out each evening to light smelly cigars with $100 bills while tee-heeing at the economic misfortune of the helpless peasantry?
Mr. Gibson, “the wealthy” didn’t get wealthy or stay wealthy by “hoarding cash.” They became wealthy through work and investment. Both of those create jobs.  And “the wealthy” do only two things with their wealth – reinvest it or spend it. And both of those create jobs.
Maybe you genuinely believe the wealthy are evil or have too much cash. But credit them at least for being smart and greedy enough to invest that cash for returns greater than they get by stuffing it under the mattress.
Mr. Gibson’s profound ignorance of economics, capitalism, free markets and rational human behavior is shared by the current White House occupant. Both vilify “the wealthy” and try to punish and steal their success with higher taxes and regulatory burdens.
Then they complain when “the wealthy” hesitate to invest more wealth for government to confiscate.
January 20, 2013 can’t get here soon enough.
– Paul Weidman, Tryon