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. . . Why not junk the most inequitable personal income tax and all the other patch-quilt federal taxes and try out a simple 100% sales tax at the manufacturers level? This would amount to a 50% tax at the retail level and yet would bring in revenues of $80 billion.
The secret of the tax would be that it would tax ... everything at the same rate . . . There would be no tax evasion and the Government could fire most of the revenue bureau . . .
WILLIAM L. ROBERTSON Oreland, Pa.
In Venezuela
Sir:
The article about Venezuela [Sept. 21] certainly handed me a big laugh.
I have been living and working in Venezuela for over five years, and even though I have what is considered to be a very good position, my salary is certainly a far cry from your "$1,000 a month is just about a rock-bottom wage."
As for the banks' paying 3% interest on minimum balances . . . cooks earning $10.50 a day, etc. . . . Some banks do pay 1% interest but that is all. A good cook may earn Bs. 10 or Bs. 12 per day, but since a bolivar is worth about 30¢, you can figure out what her actual earnings are.
Y. M. SIMEONE Caracas, Venezuela
Sir:
Re your appraisal of Venezuela . . . A glance in another direction for a moment would also disclose that many Americans here with large families sometimes have difficulty in meeting their expenses . . . there is considerable unemployment [among them], with even larger Venezuelan families hovering from day to day around the one member working for one of the foreign oil companies operating in the area. A yet deeper survey would also introduce a few of us who came at the dawn of the present era of activity and who have spent the better part of our lives here . . . None of us are millionaires . . .
PAUL J. GRUBER
Barcelona, Venezuela
Strictly Legal
Sir:
The least you could do was cut out the "no hunting or fishing" sign in your pic of Ike [Sept. 28]. I would surely hate to see him hauled in before the local magistrate and fined $10 for every fish.
TIM ABRAHAM Niles, Ohio
Sir:
I'd like to know if President Eisenhower will be prosecuted or not as a trespasser . . .
ALBERTO LANDESMANN Sao Paulo, Brazil
¶ No trespasser was Angler Eisenhower: he was invited to fish the South Platte River on the ranch of a friend, Denver Banker Bal F. Swan.—ED.
Muntii
SIR: . . . Seldom have I heard Nyasa Africans called "niggers" and only occasionally "coons"by Nyasa Europeans [Sept. 14]. Your wording is a slur on both races. The usual is "native," "muntii"(person), "munt" (person abbreviated), though even these are beginning to suffer under the "locals' " aggravated persecution/inferiority complex so that "African" or "Nyasa" are generally taking their places.
I trust you will keep your implications of "Chifwamba" in mind when you attempt to report what the Nyasa thinks of the Central African Federation . . .
JOHN ALGAR
Mwanga, Tanganyika