THE WAGES OF CAPITALISM

America is a profoundly sick capitalist society in its imperialist stage of development and both its major political parties are bankrupt. They are not the answer to our problems; they are the cause of our problems. As Richard Hofstadter argued in The American Political Tradition, despite their slight differences, both major US political parties adhere to an outmoded political philosophy—self-help, competition, private enterprise and beneficent cupidity. Democracy in America is nominal. In Hofstadter’s words, since its foundation America has been primarily a democracy of cupidity committed to capitalism.

Marx and Engels’ analysis of capitalism is accurate. Labor is the source of value. Workers are not treated fairly by their employers. Capitalists extract more from their enterprises than they contribute. Marx and Engels call this surplus value or profit. This is the cause of the grave social inequality plaguing America. Capitalist exploitation and class struggle are, therefore, integral to capitalism itself.

Only a democratic socialist political party, supported by the working class, can truly change America. This is not about to happen in the near future. America’s workers only want a better deal from their oppressors. Until this changes, our society will become sicker and continue to disintegrate.

True social progress will not occur until our global empire and lethal military machine are dismantled. American needs to stop interfering in the internal affairs of other UN member states and start scrupulously abiding by the UN Charter. This cannot occur until the American people turn to a form of socialism which seriously restricts free enterprise and is committed to transforming America into a truly just and humane civilization.

David Slive

Buffalo

WHY STOP AT ONE BRIDGE?

A new second span of the Peace Bridge will indeed be beneficial to the region if done properly. So too will a new bridge between Black Rock and Fort Erie’s Bridgeburg district. This second bridge should connect to the Scajacquada Expressway and complement the proposed Black Rock Park and existing Broderick and Squaw Island parks, just as the Peace Bridge Expansion Project should also create and restore as much future and former parkland as possible.

Also, the Scajaquada should be made into an Olmsted parkway in its entirety, redirected from behind the Grant Street Tops store, across the former Tee-to-Green property, and then to the QEW along the railroad track. Humboldt Parkway should, therefore, be restored and extended although there will be more traffic than before the expressways were built. There should be roundabout intersections, wherever possible and a traffic circle or rotary where Routes 33 and 198 and Delevan Avenue currently meet and further roundabouts until this newly restored and extended Humboldt Parkway loses itself into Virginia, Goodell, and East Tupper and other parallel streets, by the intersection with Elm Street. (Agassiz Circle should be restored to its original entirety as well). This would make a parkway from the east side of downtown, to Black Rock and northwestern Fort Erie.

Also, Interstate 190 should be removed between Michigan Avenue and the interchange with Interstate 290, the latter of which should take over the route designation of I-190 to the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge. Both sections of Exchange Street should be reconnected and Exchange, the Upper Terrace, Bingham, Fourth, Seventh and Niagara streets, with traffic directed down these streets between Michigan Street and the intersection of Kenmore Avenue, Sheridan Drive and Grand Island Boulevard. This section of I-190 should be replaced with the entirety of the Commercial Slip and the Erie Canal rewatered from the Tonawandas to the Inner Harbor as well as by a trucks-only underground expressway tunnel.

Moreover, there should also be a bridge over the Niagara River from the western end of Sheridan Drive in the Town of Tonawanda to the QEW between Fort Erie and Niagara Falls, Ontario as well as a ferry across the Niagara River between Youngstown and Niagara-on-the-Lake and ferries across Lake Ontario connecting several Canadian ports to Youngstown, Rochester and Oswego.

Kevin F. Yost

Henrietta