Spending isn’t so selfless

As Les Francis said (Letters, Oct. 15), “the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans control more than one-third of our total wealth.” This is true. He also summarizes author George Gilder as claiming that the rich “are motivated to invest money only because it will be good for community and others rather than for profit, greed or power.” This is mostly false in my opinion.

When investing a ton of money, most people don’t “only” do it for the community. They may do some of their investing for the good of others, but surely most of their investing is also for their own profit.

Do you see the wealthy giving most, or all, of their earnings to their communities and other people? No, which is why I think the wealthy should be taxed more to help fund programs to benefit the community. The wealthy would most likely have spent their extra money on frivolous things anyways. Why not put the extra money to good use so everyone can benefit?

Taylor Holm

Spokane