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‘Tax the rich’ won’t fix broken health system
Re: “Billionaires can afford cost of keeping health system afloat”(Page A6, Jan.20).
The op-ed by Josephine Rios is an example of hate-the-rich egalitarian ideology. For every problem, “tax the rich” is a simplistic answer, not a fix. Entrepreneurs are already being driven out of California by high taxes and other poor policies.
The real problem is cost inflation driven by regulation, administrative complexity, limited competition and distorted incentives. The U.S. already spends more per capita on health care than any other nation. Money is consumed by bureaucracy, price controls that discourage supply and policies that separate consumers from costs. More tax revenue does not fix these structural flaws. It entrenches them.
Taxing high earners does little to expand physician supply, reduce malpractice costs, accelerate innovation or increase hospital capacity. The system needs reform to deliver services efficiently.
Redistribution without reform may feel morally satisfying, but it won’t fix what’s broken.
Fred Gutmann
Cupertino
Billionaires who flee aren’t needed
Re: “High-stakes wealth tax proposal roils uber rich” (Page A1, Jan. 25).
This continued reporting on whether we will see billionaire flight from California if a wealth tax is introduced has me thinking that it sounds like a win-win. While I think a continuing tax, especially federal, would be best, both outcomes seem good.
Supposing no exodus, the tax rate bump would be a rather small step back to historical tax rates for high-income folks. The 70s saw income tax rates for the rich of 60-70% and a capital gains tax of around 35%. Currently, it’s reported that billionaires have an effective tax rate lower than the middle class, at the same time using public infrastructure while enriching themselves at our expense. Something must change.
If they leave, the short-term pain will help wean our state off reliance on a few overly powerful barons. Let them run to states that have weak tax laws, and enjoy the breaking infrastructure there. California doesn’t need them.
Christopher Dooner
Sunnyvale
Wildlife telling us to go all in on green energy
Re: “Researchers find Antarctic penguin breeding heating up” (Page A2, Jan. 21).
Antarctic penguins are not the only living things confused by warming temperatures. My plum tree, tricked by the unseasonably warm fall, hung onto its leaves until December. My paperwhites, usually the first sign of spring, were in full bloom at the same time.
Unfortunately for our kids, a war rages over whether fossil fuels or clean energy should reign. Even in California, leaders have backslid on climate policy, such as setting aside clean energy building codes in Altadena. A consistent climate champion has not yet emerged to lead the U.S. to the clean energy future that nature demands and science recommends.
A champion would sunset “gas” from its namesake and fuel mix, go all in on rooftop solar and batteries, reinvest maintenance into heat pump installations, commit a percentage of profits to the clean energy transition, and be a role model in word and deed. PG&E, I nominate you.
Lisa Oliver
Milpitas
Trump’s playbook is simple but effective
President Trump’s playbook is pretty simple and very successful, yet Democrats never anticipated it.
He asks for more and settles for less. It made Trump a billionaire and two-time president, and now it has opened the way to building a key part of the “Golden Dome” in Greenland to protect the U.S. and our Western Allies.
Ed Kahl
Woodside
Trump has exposed our nation’s dark side
In one way, President Trump has exposed the darker underbelly of the American persona. We’ve always had these parts of ourselves as a nation. We have been as a country overtly racist, self-interested and self-aggrandizing. And if we are honest with ourselves, each of us has a little of these in us as well. But we have shoved these shadow sides of ourselves and our nation into the unconscious. Trump is awakening us to our rejected self by being all that we reject.
The question now is, is this what we want to be, or do we long to be our better selves? If we can face our own shadows both individually and collectively and deal with them openly and honestly rather than hiding from or lying about them, we might have a real chance of becoming our better selves and a better country.
Bob Cole
San Jose
Death and destruction tell the story of Gaza
Re: “Claims of genocide in Gaza are false” (Page A6, Jan. 23).
There’s a saying, “If it walks like a duck” … I say, “If it looks like genocide.” That’s what it looks like in Gaza.
A letter writer states that what Israel is doing in Gaza isn’t genocide similiar to what happened to the Jews by the Nazis, and he explains that you’re not committing genocide if you give the enemy a warning. Didn’t the Nazi’s warn the Jews that they were going to round them up?
Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader ordering the mass killings, is staying out of court (and out of jail) while Israel does everything it can to “wipe out” the rest of the Palestinians who are still struggling to survive in Gaza. If the war ends, his trial begins again.
He’s cut off all aid at a whim. He’s continued the killing while there is a ceasefire in place. Maybe it’s genocide. Maybe it’s not.
John Bingham
San Jose
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