Shaking a fist at billionaires

Re “America’s worship of billionaires is fading,” column, Feb. 7

have been preaching over the decades. I have long been perplexed by this country’s perverse affection for people of immense wealth.

The wealthiest individuals of our nation have convinced us that their riches reflect their great intelligence and hard work. Their messaging has been so successful that it allowed for the election of our current president.

The silver lining to this dismal presidency is the awakening of the electorate to the misleading claims of the rich, ranging from trickle-down economics to portraying themselves as “self-made.”

We are still a democracy, not a plutocracy, and it is going to take every member of the working class to understand that while the 1% has the money, we have the votes to keep it that way. Jason Y. Calizar Torrance

I am not certain that America has ever been in the thrall of billionaires, but I certainly hope that we are not fed up with them. We should be thankful that we have them.

When I read about the Langone family setting up an endowment so that tuition for all students at the New York University School of Medicine will be covered, I am thankful. When I read of all the work that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has done around the world, I am thankful.

I have no problem with billionaires doing this directly rather than through taxation. In L.A., we cannot even accurately count all the homeless people living here, let alone come up with a solution to the problem.

Thank you, billionaires. Kevin Minihan Los Angeles