Will on End of Poverty

George Will (Column Right, Aug. 21) is certainly correct that life expectancy and living conditions have improved in the past 300 years. Had he wished to extend his perspective back to the cave dwellers, he could have noted the improvement in housing. What fails to capture Will’s attention, much less his concern, is the persistence of poverty in the midst of unparalleled wealth.

Half the schoolchildren in Los Angeles County come from families living below the poverty line. A significant portion of the work force is paid less than $6 an hour, while CEO salaries, moving into seven-digit figures, are the equivalent of $480 an hour. The challenge today is not to preen ourselves on living at a time of great wealth, as Will does, but to make sure that some of that wealth is dedicated to the material and spiritual nurturing of every child.

JOYCE APPLEBY

Professor of History

UCLA

Let me get this straight now. Big-bucks, thesaurus-toting columnist Will, married to a big-bucks lobbyist, sidesteps legions of his homeless fellow citizens on his way to work, consults another big-bucks researcher employed by the big-bucks-funded American Enterprise Institute, then brings us a column on “the end of poverty,” assuring us that our country is “rich beyond the dreams even of our parents” and that men and women of equal background are almost equally paid.

Is anyone working on term limits for myopic political pundits?

Can we anticipate a column by David Duke on brotherhood? How about one from O.J. Simpson on marriage? Perhaps one by Marge Schott on public relations?

RALPH G. LONG

Newport Beach