How did this nation get into this economic dilemma? Poor bank loans, poor fiscal spending choices at the federal, state, local and personal level. We have even mortgaged our future, as the public school systems are in dire trouble. Overextended credit card debt, which means buy now, can’t pay later.

On the local level, I would say that probably 20 percent of local taxpayers didn’t or couldn’t pay their property taxes. Double that today, as people have lost their jobs and are just trying to survive. Food, heat, pills … miss one of those and an early expiration date can be expected.

I recently saw a television commercial about a couple who owed the federal government $3 million in back taxes. They contacted a certain company and now smilingly tell the public they have to pay only $40,000 — a $2,560,000 difference. Other couples, some owing $100,000, paid only a small fraction, too. What message does that send? Don’t pay your federal taxes. Put that money aside, contact “that company” and save yourself a bunch of money.

If those people owed that much, they must have earned 10 times what they owed. 

How can that happen?

Ben Franklin was a genius when he said something like, “The only things you can be sure of are death and taxes.” In today’s society, aren’t they one and the same?

George A. Ferguson, Sabattus