Don’t stereotype by either race or income

By Janice Herr, Las Vegas

Thursday, March 10, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Donald Trump wants us to assume all large groups of people are identical, such as Muslims or illegal immigrants, and if one of them commits a crime, they are all guilty. Now Bernie Sanders wants us to think of millionaires, billionaires and Wall Street in the same way, as if they are all crooks, cheating us and taking our money.

Read about the philanthropy of the Rockefellers and Andrew Carnegie. They could give away a dollar each to a million people, but a million in their pocket did more good. They spent many millions doing good works, such as donating 20 national parks and open spaces, and starting our public library system. One of our modern billionaires is putting his own money into building a space vehicle, another started a car company, and others have started Hyperloop Technologies, a transportation system of the future. Bill Gates is giving away his fortune and persuaded others to do the same.

I worked for two rich men who gave their employees a share in the company profits, at no cost to us. When my husband got a job out of the state, I had to leave the program, but my profit sharing was enough to allow me to buy a new car and have money left over.

There are “bad apples” in every group of people, but you can’t tell morality by wealth, any more than you can tell it from religion, race or skin color. Most people are honest and hard-working, and our country is great because of them.