Sounding Off:

In response to Jamshed H. Dastur’s column about the loss of the middle class (Sounding Off: “America weaker with loss of the middle class,” May 5):

Though Dastur claims American companies take jobs overseas, the American economy remained at full employment right up to the housing meltdown. So no matter how many jobs were outsourced, there were still plenty of jobs for anyone who wanted to work.

Dastur says American corporations “pay little or no taxes.” American corporate tax rates were 39% in 2008, second highest in the world. Plus, American corporations pay taxes on income earned both at home and overseas, unlike most countries. American corporations are losing competitiveness in the world economy due to their tax burden.

While it’s true that the middle class is shrinking, where are they going? Up. People making $100,000 or more rose from 12% to 24% from 1979 to 2007, according to Stephen Rose in the Washington Post. Because the percentage of poor remained unchanged during this time, people leaving the middle class moved up to rich. What’s wrong with that?

Dastur mentions the 15% rich people who pay for capital gains taxes, but he neglects to inform us that in 2007 the top 1% of all taxpayers paid 40% of all income taxes, and the top 10% of taxpayers paid 70%. It’s a myth that the rich don’t pay income taxes. They pay virtually all of them, as this year the bottom 47% of all wage earners will pay no income tax whatsoever.

Though Dastur would have us believe that “the Great Communicator,” Ronald Reagan, started the trashing of the middle class, in fact the Reagan tax cuts spurred economic growth across the economic spectrum all through the ’80s and ’90s.

The Kennedy and Bush tax cuts led to similar spurts in wealth creation. Dastur seems to believe that with government spending and borrowing, we can achieve economic prosperity. If that were so, the economies of North Korea and Cuba would be among the most prosperous in the world, and people would be escaping from the U.S. to Cuba, instead of vice versa.

Dastur describes the support of tax cuts as “thuggery.” I maintain that the only thuggery being done is by the government stealing from taxpayers to fund their nefarious schemes that are bankrupting the country.

DAVID PEARSE is a Costa Mesa resident.