What is true source of writer's complaints?

One must wonder how Val Thornton’s thinking can actually retain logical integrity. In her letter (Jan. 5, Daily Bee), she offers no real solution to the gap between the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy that “plagues” this country.

One can only guess that she wants some sort of seizure of the 1%’s assets. Her justification for that seizure seems to come from her rendition of history that the wealthy earned that wealth on the backs of East and West coast immigrants as well as slaves. Well, that’s partly true, but I wonder how Oprah Winfrey, or Herman Cain, or Juan Williams fit into this line of thinking? The fact is 1%-ers have come out of the ranks of slaves and immigrants. Many self-made millionaires of all sorts of ethnic stripes in more recent times have started their lives in very modest conditions and have risen to great wealth due to the tremendous opportunities this nation offers.

But who are the 1%-ers she’s so envious of? Their club membership includes professional athletes, football coaches, actors, authors, artists, commentators, college professors, inventors, entrepreneurs, and of course those greedy Wall Street folks.

Now, I can sympathize with the wage gap and the fact that the unemployment figures are anywhere from 8.6 percent to 20 percent and the absolute right to protest the current state of affairs. However, to blame it simply on outsourcing, and the tycoons of long ago, and the education system that was in place when unemployment was at 4 percent doesn’t seem to be the problem, or the entire problem. After all, small businesses create 70 percent of our jobs, and they don’t normally outsource; plus, jobs are actually being outsourced to the United States from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain — even Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and many others.

So what is Ms. Thornton’s complaint really about — envy, socialism, frustration, a sense of entitlement, a skewing of the facts? You make the call.

STEVE HATCHER

Clark Fork