Letter to the Editor: The Wonder of Capitalism

My nose was running like a faucet! I was in Europe and had come down with a cold like no other. Washcloth in hand, I went into a store to buy some tissue, but the only kind it carried was rough, with tiny bumps all over it. So I went to another store and then another, but rough and bumpy was all there was. 

It was then that I learned that this brand was the one and only brand that the government permitted to be sold. Welcome to socialism! I bought the rough and bumpy, and plenty of it, because I was flying back to the U.S. the next day.

Once home, I made a beeline for the tissue aisle in the grocery store and looked at it with new eyes! There was white tissue, blue tissue, pink, yellow and more. There were fancy boxes, kid boxes and squishy packs for the car. There was organic tissue, economical tissue and my favorite – tissue with lotion! Whoever thought of that idea was a genius.

Welcome to capitalism! It’s a market that’s free and open. I’ve heard that Boris Yeltsin, former president of Russia, was awestruck the first time he walked into an American grocery store, and that he couldn’t believe the products, the variety, the color and abundance – all of the fruits of a free and open market. 

Tissue is just an example. It’s just one small product among myriad products that many of us take for granted. I wish I’d kept a package of the rough and bumpy tissue because it was a reminder of the contrast between the small and restrictive ways of socialism, and the wonder of capitalism. A vote to the right this election will work to preserve and protect our bounty – our cornucopia allowed and provided by capitalism.

Barb Miles

Boulder, Colorado