Re: “The splitting of Seattle — and the Eastside too — is accelerating” [Sept. 17, Northwest]:
Danny Westneat exactly quantifies what Matthew Desmond, in his guide “Poverty, by America,” calls “non-public opulence and public squalor.”
Westneat ends his piece with the query, “ … how do you even make the case that there’s such a factor as an excessive amount of success?” Desmond makes the case by drawing a causal hyperlink between non-public opulence and public squalor. “We create affluent and unique communities, however in so doing additionally create neighborhoods with concentrated despair — the externality of stockpiled alternative.”
Wealth accumulation of the magnitude Westneat paperwork results in weakening of public establishments — public faculties, public housing, public transportation — as the rich do with out these cornerstones of the widespread good. Desmond cites the numerous methods authorities offers a welfare state that guards fortunes moderately than increasing alternative for these in want.
It’s time for a wealth tax or state revenue tax and a rebalancing of our social security web. As Desmond writes, “What good is all the cash when so many … take 4 buses to work and switch vehicles into properties and cope with toothaches by ready for the rot to boring the nerves. … We should always considerably deepen our collective funding in financial stability and primary dignity. …”
Thomas Heller, Seattle
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