from a 1965 memo from Weld Carter to two colleagues:
Anent our conversation in the car on the way to lunch yesterday -- Marjorie's nephew, who now lives in NYC, recently wrote me: "Does your traveling include NYC? With the long over-due tax overhaul, to replace the onerous patchwork program, I can't think of a site more deserving of your efforts."
My answer was: "A young man by the name of Netzer in the Graduate School of Public Administration at NYT is heading up the study to find additional revenue sources in NYC. He is a knowledgeable person. However, there are two aspects to this matter: on is economic and one is political. My friends tell me that it is not enough that you develop a fiscal program that is sound (i.e., that will encourage, instead of discouraging, production); it must also be acceptable to the peepul. That is Dr. Netzer's problem.
"For my part, I have no interest in the political. My interest is in the economic (and philosophic and ethical). I'm interested in finding others who can help me and whom I, in turn, can help find these things out. For, until these things are found out and generally understood, NYC will go on the way it has been going, as will the country in general and Vietnam and Africa and South America etc. And when they are found out and generally understood, I believe they will then be acted upon."
This is merely to state a viewpoint -- not to defend it.
The "young man" Netzer is Dick Netzer. (Weld Carter, at the time was 65.) Dick Netzer was 28 years younger. He died in 2008. He was involved in The Committee on Taxation, Resources and Economic Development and Weld thought very highly of him.
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