Having previously lived in the East Coast for 17 years, I am shocked that a minor snowfall of one inch in the Seattle area could shut down a major metropolitan area.

These levels of snow are commonplace in the Northeast. They never cause a problem and everyone can get up in the morning and get to work. The idea of Interstate closures, abandoned buses and cars or people arriving home from work at 3 a.m. is unheard of.

To operate in the real world it is necessary to make connections between things. In Washington State people are failing to make connections between snow removal and an income tax. On the newscasts I hear people complaining about the lack of snow removal, but these people seem to think that the money for such services magically appears out of nowhere.

In my former state, New Jersey, the voters rant and rave about taxes, but in the end they pay their $2,000-3,000 and whenever there is snow, the roads are plowed and people can get to their jobs or their doctors offices and can keep their personal family and entertainment plans.

Businesses realize that they do not wish to lose unnecessary days of work from their employees. Retail operations realize that they don’t want to lose sales or merchandise shipments.

With an income tax, the government can hire crews that work on weeding and road maintenance during the warm weather and snow removal during the cold weather. Trucks with plows can be purchased so that the major highways are never brought to a halt. This creates jobs and provides an economic stimulus because it reduced unemployment and because the workers will buy automobiles and other items.

There is a point at which people have to come together and share their wealth for the common good. In this paradigm the affluent realize that losses will be prevented if they pay the true cost of loss prevention.

I hope that voters will reconsider any ideological opposition to income taxes and weigh the advantage of paying a relatively minor amount of tax in comparison to the cost of highway closures, the removal of abandoned cars and buses, traffic accident emergency services and the shutdown of an entire metropolitan area due to an inch of snow.

Linda Seltzer, Redmond