To the Editor: (In response to Dec. 13 letter titled Opinion: Potsdam man points to factual errors, distortions, over-simplifications)

In his recent letter Mr. Schulz begins by inferring I suffer from “self-deception, wishful thinking, and flights of fancy” in disagreeing with his criticism of our Constitutional established government, free market system, and his advocating of Marxism ideology. He employs Saul Alinsky’s tactics to present me as a political stereotype to deride instead of focusing on the subject in question.

Yes, Mr. Schulz, I am well aware of the poverty rate in St. Lawrence County. But attributing it as a direct result of our economic system that “brutally takes advantage…to keep us on a tight lease, in debt, and in financial instability and insecurity“ is an incorrect assumption.

The reason for poverty in the North Country is the lack of jobs that offer upward mobility, as we neither have a large industrial base or a favorable geographical location. St Lawrence County is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island, with only one tenth of their respective populations. Its economy was once based on farming, diary, paper mills, rail, and as a major port on the St. Lawrence. Over time, those industries have shrunk or closed. Since New York state rates near the bottom in the US for fostering business, suffocating them with red tape, fees, and taxes that drives them away, St. Lawrence County cannot hope to attract businesses that will provide better jobs to its residents. This results with many in the county leaving for greener pastures elsewhere. These circumstances have nothing to do with alleged claims of exploitation via capitalism.

Meanwhile, no one here is “brutally” overworked or underpaid, as they are protected by NY labor laws. Presently, due to COVID, employers are desperate to hire, offering great incentives, making it a worker’s market. The opportunity for upward mobility to change jobs, improve oneself by education or learning a trade belies the claim that working people are economically enslaved by capitalist masters wearing top hats and coattail suits. America is still a land of opportunity where one can uplift themselves economically by dint of effort, as attested by the number of immigrants coming here to seek a better life.

The World Inequality economic data Mr. Schulz presented in great detail needs to be taken in context, as every country named also practices capitalism, the very system he despises. To contrast America with such nations is comparing apples to oranges. Those nations mentioned have dramatically smaller and homogeneous populations. They cannot be compared on equal terms to our highly diverse population of 330 million against countries like Norway with 5 million, or Portugal's 10 million.

Norway’s welfare programs incur a 25% sales tax rate with an income tax of 22%. The personal income tax on 80K in Portugal is 48%, with a 20% for sales added on. Denmark may be a model for “cradle-to-grave care for its citizens, but wins the dubious award of having the highest tax burden on its citizens in Europe. As much as I dislike taxes, I prefer our lesser tax rate over theirs.

Karl Marx was not qualified to be an economist. He never ran a business with employees. He couldn’t manage his own money. He depended on constant handouts from his rich benefactor Engles, whose wealth came from inheriting his father’s capitalist textile business and enjoyed “bourgeois” pleasures. Strange bedfellows indeed.

Marx’s main flaw is he tries to fix a moral issue with a political solution. He argues for the state be given ultimate power to redistribute people's productivity and wealth by a small party of elites for the benefit of all. This always results in corruption tempting leaders to skim off the top for themselves. BLM co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, an admitted trained Marxist, is one example. She spent 1.4 million of donated funds to purchase three homes for herself in affluent California neighborhoods. Stalin, Mao, Castro, Kim Jong, and Chavez have been guilty of the same. Marxism in practice fails to insure economic equity promised by its leaders who deem themselves more equal than others.

The problems of Capitalism lies not with itself, but in the heart of those who misuse it. Greed, among other vices, is a human condition that at best can only be managed, but not eradicated, by government alone. Only living the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount taught by Him whose birth we celebrate this Christmas season, can society be transformed from the inside out. External coercion, even with good intentions, by a secular state given absolute power, cannot instill virtue in people.

Mr. Schulz's closing dismissal of Mr. Beary’s and my factual rebuttals of Trotsky and Marxism employs a condescending tone, claiming our so-called “minutia”, consisting of “convoluted right wing talking points" is riddled with “myriad factual errors, distortions, and over simplifications”, not worth his time to contest.

It is tedious to read a redundant litany employed as a speculative hypothesis of who I am or what I believe in. It only serves as a rhetorical smokescreen to cover a retreat from answering pesky questions that challenge the legitimacy of Marxism and Trotsky's legacy.

Ron Shirtz

Rensselaer Falls