Note to Vladimir Teichberg: There is nothing wrong with the form of government that we already have. It has given the world the most representative and long-lasting democracy it has ever known. I agree there is rampant corruption, but the solution is not to replace it with “people-driven committees” (the world has been down that road before: Vladimir, talk to your parents about how that worked for them. If it had, you wouldn’t be in America today). No, the answer is to return to the vision of our Founding Fathers: limited government, a free-market economic system, grounded in a moral vision of self-control and personal responsibility.

As to Occupy Wall Street’s vaunted goal of reducing inequality (a goal I am all for), it would do well to examine the drivers of said inequality. Are Wall Street bankers more greedy than they used to be, or are other factors involved? I submit that the government itself has been an enabler of inequality, heavily favoring Wall Street with its bailouts and stimulus packages. And what impact has the influx of millions of unskilled undocumented workers had on the labor market? Might not this be a factor in depressing wages overall?

Finally, we should consider the effect of the collapse of intact families. The explosion of out-of-wedlock births and of children living outside of two-parent households has widened economic disparity. Social scientists routinely find that individuals raised in intact families generally are better equipped to thrive in the economy. A growing number of our population have been deprived of a stable and loving family life, compromising their earnings potential as a result.

Robert Beebe ’75