Don Keelan's piece (Journal, March 5) still irks me. In it he blames Sen. Bernie Sanders for creating and perpetuating the social and political polarization that now exists. He claims that the Senator is out to get the rich and that he "despises wealthy people."
The reality is that we have nearly 1,000 billionaires in the United States. Many of them do not pay their fair share of taxes; some do not pay anything at all. The top 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 92 percent. Excessive wealth translates into excessive political power.
Giant corporations make huge profits while 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. The seven largest health insurance companies made $69 billion in profits last year while many of our people had to declare bankruptcy because of medical debt. CEOs of these corporations rake in 400 times what their employees make. The average worker makes $50 a week less than what he made 50 years ago after adjusting for inflation. The federal minimum wage is still $7.25; that's about $15,000 a year for a full time job. Mr. Keelan would like us to develop trust in these corporations, but this is hard to do considering what the tobacco industry did to deny the harmful effects of cigarettes and what the fossil fuel industry does to deny the connection between oil and climate change.
I doubt that Sen. Sanders despises wealthy people. I suspect that he does not particularly like the poor distribution of wealth and its effect on the nation.
G. Richard Dundas
Bennington
