To the Editor:
“It Was a Bad Week for Billionaires With Delusions of Saving the World,” by Anand Giridharadas (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 21), was on the money.
Billionaires got to their lofty heights by anything but benevolence. The tax code provides incentives for philanthropy, which also acts as a public relations cover for the exploitation of the people who actually assist in the billionaires’ success.
I believe in capitalism and material success, but our current system is so top-heavy that it is counterproductive. Trickle-down was the rationale for tax advantages in order to spread the wealth. I think we saw through that fallacy. Warren Buffett observed that he pays a lower tax rate than his staff.
I always wonder how a person’s life changes when their net worth goes from one billion to two billion. Obviously art collections expand, mansions and townhouses multiply, and private jets become fleets. How does that help average Americans?
I believe in incentives and rewarding innovation, but the law of diminishing returns still applies. “Sprinkling some fairy dust,” in Mr. Giridharadas’s words, won’t solve our social problems. The capital must be more widespread; otherwise the system will collapse because the pyramid’s foundation will be too weak to support the pinnacle. These emperors are clothed but misguided.
Steven A. Ludsin
East Hampton, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Anand Giridharadas’s guest essay is incredibly cynical.
He ignores the many good deeds by the very wealthy. How about the Gates Foundation’s work to eliminate malaria; or Paul Tudor Jones’s Robin Hood Foundation; or Ken Langone’s work with N.Y.U.’s medical school, including funding all tuitions; or Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, commitments by the extremely wealthy to give the majority of their money to philanthropy, etc.?
And to call Jeff Bezos’s contribution to charity as sprinkles of “fairy dust” is the height of cynical sarcasm. Mr. Giridharadas attacks Amazon for a small employee reduction, not mentioning that Amazon hired hundreds of thousands of displaced people during the pandemic at substantially higher wages than its competitors. And, unfortunately, stewards of entities must manage for the long term to avoid more layoffs.
His essay reflects a complete lack of balance.
Tom McCabe
New York
To the Editor:
Thanks to Anand Giridharadas, whose cogent insights ably demystify the alluring but ultimately bankrupt pose of opulent plutocrats pretending to be magnanimous social crusaders. Indeed these hypocrites with bulging wallets need to be subject to laws, regulations and a just system of taxation that can properly and equitably use excess wealth in service of our skewed society’s desperate needs.
Given the encouraging trends indicated by the recent election, maybe a critical mass of the electorate is beginning to wake up to the scams of the ultra-rich as well as the ultra-right.
Joe Martin
Seattle
To the Editor:
As billionaires, by their actions, make their own case against themselves, Anand Giridharadas corrects the genius myths that raise their standing and enhance their power. He insists that they “are not our saviors.”
Tevye, in “Fiddler on the Roof,” also gives us insight on this point. Tevye yearns to be rich, belting out the benefits of wealth as he sings “If I Were a Rich Man,” including this exquisite line: “When you’re rich, they think you really know.”
They don’t know.
Linda Stamato
Morristown, N.J.
The Pandemic Isn’t Over. Don’t Act as if It Were.
To the Editor:
Re “As Country Reopens, Americans Either Fear the Virus or Forget It” (front page, Nov. 15):
The pandemic is not over, despite proclamations to the contrary; acting as if it is over does not make it over. With more than 300 deaths per day and projections of more than 100,000 a year for years to come, it is long overdue that we use this time as a teachable moment, beyond adequate masking and up-to-date immunization.
In an event like a viral pandemic, public health authorities and health care providers need to address the underlying causes that lead to more severe outcomes. Serious Covid infections are largely preventable or mitigated by attending to largely controllable lifestyle factors including diet, exercise, timely management of pre-existing conditions and harm reduction (cessation or reduction of nicotine and alcohol use).
Of course, infants, the immunocompromised and the elderly must be protected, by a population willing to test, quarantine when ill, vaccinate and mask as dictated by local conditions. But it remains within the power of millions to adopt healthier habits as a means of improving the pre-existing conditions that are predictors of Covid hospitalizations, disability and death.
We must also address what may be the most significant factor when it comes to explaining the dramatic differences in national infection, hospitalization and death rates, according to an important study published by the British medical journal The Lancet: the inverse relationship of citizens’ trust in government health authorities and each other, and pandemic outcomes. Simply put: Less trust, more Covid.
In a world of multiplying variants, let us use this time to encourage healthier living and to rebuild our trust in public health.
Eric Radack
Santa Fe, N.M.
Moderate Republicans, We Need You
To the Editor:
In the newly elected House Republican caucus, the MAGA members hold undue sway because of the small majority the Republicans hold. This will make approving any necessary bills or getting anything substantial accomplished difficult, if not impossible.
Are there not 10 or 15 middle-of-the-road Republican House members who have the courage to join the Democratic minority (à la the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus) to get something done for the good of their constituents and our country? If there are not, the next two years will be wasted in partisan wrangling and investigations that will splinter our country further.
These times call for courage, selflessness and love of country over ambition and party loyalty. Can it happen?
Robert Slifkin
Huntington Bay, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Democratic House leaders should make selected moderate House Republicans aware that they could count on Democratic votes for the speakership. Hopefully a moderate Republican would try to address issues in addition to being forced to pursue partisan objectives.
To the Editor:
If Vladimir Putin wanted the nation of Ukraine to join the Russian sphere of influence, he would be doing things that win over the hearts and minds of the Ukrainian people. But what the free world sees from the shocking and tragic photographs and other remarkable journalism is that Mr. Putin cares only for Ukraine’s real estate.
He cares not a whit for the Ukrainian people. That is brought into focus with the documentation of war crimes that shows the thousands of murdered Ukrainian men, women and children, and the destruction of whole Ukrainian towns and cities.
Richard Dickinson
Richmond Hill, Ga.