Letters to the Editor: Billionaires, do humanity a favor and give away your wealth

To the editor: To the kindly billionaires who say that they are not being taxed enough, listen up — there is no law that prevents anyone from giving money to the federal government. If the concept of giving money to the government rather than fulfilling a tax obligation runs contrary to your billionaire DNA, what’s stopping you from organizing and funding entities among yourselves to reduce poverty or feed people? (“Sen. Manchin says oh no, we mustn’t target the super-rich with higher taxes. But why on Earth not?” Opinion, Nov. 12)

I suspect you give away substantial sums each year to tax-deductible organizations to reduce your tax bill. How about giving away additional money from your accumulated wealth, without advice from a tax attorney, to support the life consequence of people less fortunate? Some may even be customers of the companies you profit from.

Are you planning to conserve all your cash to create a softer foundation for your coffin? Why not spend it now to improve lives, while you can? When it comes time for your final repose, you won’t know the difference.

Buz Wolf, Studio City

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To the editor: If America prides itself on hard work being rewarded, then hard work shouldn’t be taxed more than sitting around accumulating wealth, as a multimillionaire quoted in Nicholas Goldberg’s column pointed out.

If America is the land of opportunity, we should at least start shaving off a bit of the mountains of inequality by taxing wealth instead of, or at least more than, work. How to do it? Listen to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

The wealth of the super-rich is so staggering that I used an example in a math lesson in my fifth-grade class, “The power of 0.” My students found out that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could buy all the residential property in the city of Riverside (population 330,000) and still have money left over.

Nobody, absolutely nobody, “earns” that kind of money with fair work.

Kai Kruse, Corona

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To the editor: Elon Musk is doing more than his fair share to solve the country’s enormous social problems.

His company SpaceX is delivering rockets at a lower price than NASA would have spent on its own vehicles. His car company Tesla has the vision of “accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy” by building zero-emission electric cars. This will save billions of dollars that our government can use to address real social issues.

Musk is spending his money on the right stuff to save the planet for future generations. By 2031, I believe the world will be well on its way to sustainable energy, and electric vehicles will be the norm.

Dennis Arntz, Laguna Niguel