Readers React: Yes, Democrats can be millionaires and still fight against inequality

To the editor: Two letter writers try to present the millionaire statuses of Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden as being somehow inconsistent with the progressive reforms they espouse to protect workers and consumers and address extreme income and wealth inequality.

None of those candidates has criticized moderate wealth itself, only the policies that allow tax avoidance and the extreme concentration of wealth in the top 1%.

Warren, Sanders and Biden all come from humble origins. Their modest fortunes were not attained by gouging others, avoiding taxes or scamming the marketplace. They wrote books and gave speeches; in other words, they produced things of value.

They do not object to people doing well; they just want to ensure that everyone has equality of opportunity and the same chance their generation had to succeed.

Davis D. Danizier, Oceanside

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To the editor: I’d like to respond to the critique of “wealthy liberals” by one of your letter writers.

If I fight for the right to collective bargaining, transparency in pricing and a larger earned-income tax credit, then I am fighting income inequality. How much money I earn does not change this.

Conversely, if I cheat my contractors, pay my workers minimum wage and exploit legal loopholes to enrich myself, then I am making the problem of inequality worse even if I’m not a millionaire.

Policy ought to matter more than identity.

Michael Helperin, Los Angeles

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