Musings: Should wealth have a ceiling?

Some people claim we should not allow anyone to become a billionaire. The big question is how much money should we be allowed to accumulate. How did people reach this lofty place? Was it hard work, investment, inheritance, or by lottery? Other questions arise in this discussion as well.

Over time with inflation, having a billion dollars will be somewhat commonplace. Like a million dollars is today for those so fortunate. Sen. Bernie Sanders used to decree there should be no millionaires, then he became one.

Maybe a more important issue is this: Who should decide how much wealth we should be allowed to have? A committee maybe? Will this group have multiple members from every economic level? A welfare recipient? Someone from the lower middle class, upper middle class, a millionaire, and who else?

Then, of course, how much money do we take away? Where should it go? Some say social programs, some say just give the money to poorer people to even things out.

How will all this affect the driven people to still do better and achieve greater things? Maybe an air conditioning repair person shouldn’t work so hard in a hot attic when he or she can flip burgers for the same bucks. Why should a doctor spend so many years in school if that physician will be in the same economic level as an assembly-line person? Aren’t our brilliant inventors and engineers entitled to have their greater share?

Some say teachers and other educators, especially here on Long Island, are overpaid. To them I say, you wouldn’t survive a day in a classroom with 20-30 kids.

Everyone, in my opinion, should pay the same tax rate, with no loopholes and no deductions. Every person, rich or poor, has the right to donate to any cause they wish. The billionaires do a lot of this, and they still have a lot left over. Good for them. Keep it up.

— Mitch Rakita, Lake Grove