Billionaires can help poor instead of splurging

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I was lucky enough to catch a recent television interview of American astrophysicist Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was asked his opinion of billionaires’ spaceships, specifically the Blue Origin owned by Jeff Bezos, who has a reported wealth of well over US$200 billion.

Dr Tyson, usually a very witty, jovial and crowd-pleasing interviewee, was rather dismissive of the space exploits; saying that although it had reportedly cost about US$6 billion, it actually achieved very little in flying to altitude of about 60 miles in a suborbital jaunt, only reaching the edge of space for a couple minutes of weightlessness. Dr Tyson told the talk-show host that if he could imagine the world globe from his schooldays, then Mr Bezos would have left the Earth’s atmosphere by the thickness of two dimes placed on that classroom globe. He then held up his thumb and forefinger with hardly a space between them to illustrate the minuscule size.

Mr Bezos’ ominous title of ‘World’s Richest Man’ made me think of previous owners of that title, like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, and The Giving Pledge about a dozen years ago. They persuaded several fabulously rich people to give a percentage of that fabulous wealth to help the less fortunate, and some advances were made in healthcare and other necessities of life in desperately poor regions of the world.

LITTLE CONTRIBUTIONS

There are presently over 2,000 billionaires worldwide, but less than 10 per cent of them contribute to the The Giving Pledge. Most seem content in displaying mental gymnastics and word salads in front-page headlines, alongside the ever-present Kardashian clan, or court cases involving lurid antics of Hollywood celebrities, like Mr and Mrs Depp.

In the concrete canyons of almost every city around the world, glass towers that house corporate offices of wealthy companies are juxtaposed with tent cities in some alley or backstreet, or under a bridge where the homeless dwell in filthy and demeaning conditions. Their inhabitants are usually drug-addicted or mentally ill, or both. Just imagine if the likes of Mr Bezos and fellow fat-cats were to set up funds to tackle this burgeoning problem. Politicians have tried and failed miserably, with property crime rates in every city rising alongside homelessness.

Imagine the US$6 billion spent on the phoney space oddity being put towards a huge fund to create treatment centres to house the homeless; and imagine such largesse spurring even the less wealthy to donate. As John Lennon sang about 50 years ago : “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can; No need for greed and hunger, A brotherhood of man; Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world; You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” Just imagine.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada