Letter: Strengthen middle class to strengthen nation

Monday, Aug. 7, 2006 | 7 a.m.

Dan Heffley's letter of July 27 outlining the role of rich people in society revealed several misconceptions.

The rich may have created jobs in the past, but now they are shipping jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor at the expense of American workers and in order to increase their own wealth.

Their charitable contributions are questionable, too. The middle-class American who is feeding a family on $30,000 a year, and who sends $50 to the Salvation Army, is contributing more than a billionaire who contributes a million and gets a big tax break. Donations from the rich can get buildings and scholarships named after them, which is a form of self-aggrandizement. The gala balls they give to raise money for charity take too big a percentage of the money raised and leave too little for charity.

The rich provide us with leadership only in that they can influence politicians or finance their own campaigns - for the benefit of the rich.

Communism is not the alternative, as Mr. Heffley stated. A strong middle class, with opportunities for decent jobs, home ownership, health care, education and a safety net for seniors is the alternative. This is the strength of America.

The rich, with their greed, are destroying the American middle class, and thus they are destroying the hope that was the United States of America.

Nadia Romeo, Las Vegas