Put your hand out, just like the capitalists

To the editor:

Lawrence Kudlow is apparently unfamiliar with how the American system of free enterprise works (Sunday commentary).

As near as I can tell -- as demonstrated by the heads of General Motors, Chrysler, Lehman Bros., Citibank and almost all members of Congress -- the way it works is that a person gets everything he can by whatever means necessary and pushes the adverse consequences onto someone else.

Unless I am missing something, that is what almost everyone making six-figure incomes in the banking, finance and mortgage industries did for five or six years.

So we have learned our lesson. We do not behave irresponsibly. We make "strategic financial decisions." We buy another house and walk away from the one that is under water. Or we declare bankruptcy. Or, like GM and AIG, we get the government to give us money. That is what smart, successful people do.

The masses are not stupid or reckless. They are following the lead of the great capitalists.

Doug Nusbaum

Las Vegas

Other people's money

To the editor:

I have read so much recently about all the so-called rights people have. The people have a "right" to a private home. "Rights" to medical care. A "right" for this and that.

The problem lies in leaving out the part "at someone else's expense."

If this attitude spreads, how long will it be before the hard-working "somebody else" -- who sees his lifetime dreams siphoned off to pay for the rights of others -- decides: "To hell with this, I might as well quit and join the parasites and live off the suckers, too"?

What will the parasites do when they've bled the "suckers" dry?

As the old saying goes: Socialism works -- till you run out of other people's money.

Bill Cramer

Las Vegas