Editor,

I do not want this coming to a letter war; however, I feel the need to respond to Mr. Thomas Kosloske’s narrow-viewed letter from Sept. 3.

Mr. Kosloske’s reference to football is poignant given the recent start of the regular season. While I applaud him for the attempt, he himself, however, was a few inches short of a first down in his comparisons.

He failed to read the last paragraph where I outlined that Burger King needs to stay and how we should do that through an honest look at our over-inflated tax code that is driving companies to look at ways of saving money.

Burger King employs around 2,400 workers in the U.S., and that’s not counting the fact that many of the restaurants are privately owned franchises.

In effect, Mr. Kosloske’s and Robert Schoening’s letters to the editor call for a worse outcome for Burger King than just moving its headquarters. At least, if it moves, Burger King would continue to pay taxes on money earned within the U.S. Also, the employees would continue to pay taxes.

Mr. Kosloske would see all of that end for what … principle?

As of 2014, the U.S. has the single highest corporate tax rate in the world after Japan lowered its tax rate, effective last year, because it saw the writing on the wall, which apparently we have yet to do. This is a corporate tax rate that is a full 10 points higher than the average of the 33 other industrialized nations in the world.

So, I ask again, what should we do about it?

I am attempting to use Burger King as an example of a spotlight on a failed system. This has nothing to do with patriotism, as some people would have you believe. This is an opportunity to affect real change in a tax code that has become too inflated by a litany of politicians, Republican and Democrat, looking to create loopholes for their biggest donors.

If we were to go to a simpler tax code, we could lower rates across the board, save money for every American, encourage companies like Burger King to stay, create jobs and, thus, more taxpayers who would put more money in the hands of both the government and every American.

That is called competition on a global economic scale, and that, Mr. Kosloske, is how a free market economy works.

Patrick Kazmierczak

Oak Harbor