Letters to the Editor: David Koch and Jeffrey Epstein are what’s wrong with capitalism

To the editor: There is something wrong with our system.

We have thousands of people sleeping on the streets of our towns and cities, and millions more live in poverty. (“David Koch, industrialist who funded conservatives, dies at 79,” Aug. 23) Yet we have a predatory capitalist system that allowed Jeffrey Epstein and the Koch brothers to accumulate enormous wealth and use it for evil.

Industrialist David H. Koch, who died Friday, and his brother Charles used their wealth to try to deny social safety-net benefits to ordinary people and to destroy the environment. It is alleged that Epstein used his wealth to sexually assault underage girls on his private Caribbean island, on his ranch in New Mexico and in his mansion in New York.

We really have to change the system.

Donna Handy, Santa Barbara

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To the editor: Koch died Friday at the age of 79. On Saturday, before his body reached ambient temperature, I read about his support for libertarian and conservative ideologies, including a strongly critical column by Michael Hiltzik.

I often see the Koch brothers as sponsors of many of the PBS scientific documentaries we enjoy.

I await similar coverage in the Los Angeles Times when 89-year-old left-wing billionaire George Soros dies.

Marv Patrick, Redondo Beach

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To the editor: Koch was never elected to any political office, but with his money, he and his brother were allowed to effectively dictate the terms of life for billions of people on our planet.

Still, Koch’s money could not buy him words of praise after his death, only sad recollection of the harm he did.

Jim Hoover, Huntington Beach