To the editor: I can’t be the one individual, and never solely at this second, to rage on the selfishness of the uber-rich in California. Evidently Google’s Sergey Brin has mobilized the threatened (in their very own minds) billionaires within the state to work for the defeat of the wealth tax (“Google co-founder Sergey Brin confronted Gavin Newsom — then launched a political war,” April 27). Their starvation for ever-more wealth on the expense of the poor and underserved is astonishing.
The tax, a one-time 5% levy, would assist heal so many areas of our society. Think about: 5% of Brin’s wealth can be practically $14 billion. My actual query is, would he miss it? Would his children miss a meal? Would he need to forgo his medicine to feed the children? Would his household be squeezed right into a one-bedroom house as a result of that’s all he can afford? He simply purchased a house with two glass-walled funiculars.
There are folks of nice wealth who recurrently work to share their wealth with the much less lucky. It’s not the scale of an individual’s wealth that angers me; it’s using it. Are the wealthy involved in regards to the public good, or are they merely involved about amassing increasingly wealth? As my mom used to say, are they going to take it with them?
Diane Cohen, Reseda
