Thank you, EO Media Group, for your recent editorial (published in the Herald’s sister papers, the East Oregonian and La Grande Observer) concerning the indictment of a Forest Service burn boss and the related issue of anti-goverment sentiment (Indictment of burn boss not the answer, Feb. 24). An unfortunate situation for sure.

My concern is the anti-government side of the story. Simply stated, corporate greed is getting a free ride on the tails of this sentiment. Big government has always had a close relationship with big business.

Sure, we need many of the things that big corporations provide. What we don’t need as average citizens is to pay extra to feed the greed that has grown exponentially in the last 60 years. The CEO-to-worker compensation ratio went from 21-to-1 in 1965 to 355-to-1 in 2022. For 100 of the S&P corporations with the lowest median worker pay, the ratio is 603-to-1.

However, we are getting screwed by big government (even though it does provide Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, agricultural subsidies and many more goods and services), and it pales in comparison to how much our lives are affected by corporate greed.

Simply think about how much we pay these days for everything and how much the CEOs are making. A quick example: Our home insurance just went up 26% from last year even though we have never made a claim. The CEO of the company in question makes over $21 million a year in salary and bonuses.

What political party the majority of these people belong to is another conversation.

Jeff Irish

Enterprise