Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

I’d like to remind the wealthiest among us that they did not acquire
their wealth all by themselves. They needed competent workers (educated
at public expense), transportation and communications networks, laws and
regulations (yes, regulations, such as those making their rarefied air
fit to breathe) . . . and for this vast web of support, the rich do in
fact have a greater debt to society than the poor or even the middle
class. So stop whining and pay up.

Sara Schaffzin
Ithaca, N.Y., Sept. 20, 2010

Note from KBJ: There will come a day when wealth-producers stop producing wealth beyond what is necessary to sustain themselves. They will decide that leisure is preferable to working for the state. What will the letter writer do then?