Editor, Register-Mail: In a recent column Bill Knight wrote about wage disparities between CEOs of S&P 500 companies and the workers they employ. He cites a report from the AFL-CIO which states that these executives last year received on average 264 times the median pay that their workers received. According to a union official quoted in the column, "The disparity is horrific, and it represents a fundamental imbalance in our economy. It exposes massive inequality."

Curiously, nowhere in his article does Knight explain exactly what is wrong with income inequality. Should employees of a company not be rewarded according to their contribution to the success of the company? Does a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs not deserve vastly more than the average lower level employee?

Also, the report mentioned above only represents a snapshot in time. It does not reflect job mobility, whereby people move from one job to another, usually to their benefit. The same individual seldom stays in the same job for their entire working career.

The great thing about the American free enterprise system is that a person with energy and ambition can work his way upwards as far as his abilities can take him. Granted that there will always be individuals who, through no fault of their own, perhaps due to physical or mental limitations, will never be able to rise on the economic ladder without some assistance. But the vast majority of us are able to improve our economic situation if we are willing to put in the effort. And typically we do start out in low-paying jobs and as we move through life and gain experience and improve our abilities, we advance economically.

This country was founded on the ideal of individual freedom, not envy of the rich. America is the country where the individual is free to reach for the stars. The tremendous spirit that built our great industries, erected skyscrapers and sent men to the moon was not fueled by envy and resentment.

Mr. Knight has written some fine columns for this newspaper, but I’m afraid he was off the mark this time. — Dennis D Johnson, Galesburg