Regarding the Aug. 18 editorial “Mark Cuban bests Ro Khanna on wealth taxes”:
In November, Californians will vote on a one-time 5 percent tax on the state’s roughly 250 billionaires. I debated Mark Cuban last week on the proposal.
California’s billionaires are worth more than $2 trillion, which is half of California’s total gross domestic product. They would still be worth nearly $2 trillion after this tax, and the revenue gained would help poor kids in California receive health care.
Sixty-one percent of California billionaires’ wealth sits in publicly traded stock that is liquid. For the start-up founder who is a billionaire on paper but is cash poor, the proposal includes a deferral. They would owe nothing to the government until they take value out through a secondary sale, a distribution or an initial public offering.
I’m not concerned about billionaires fleeing the state, either. During a fireside chat at Stanford, Jensen Huang told me that the billionaire tax is fine with him and urged his peers not to leave the state.
The artificial intelligence revolution is happening in my district: Eighty percent of the nation’s venture capital dollars so far this year came to California. I want a free enterprise system in which every hardworking American has enough money to live a decent life. Those who have made billions of dollars through pluck and ingenuity can afford to give back to a state that allowed them to live their dreams. That is progressive, patriotic capitalism.
Like Olivia Pope in “Scandal,” I don’t understand the kinds of people “who have everything but still want more.”
Ro Khanna, Washington
The writer, a Democrat, represents California’s 17th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.
An education for work — and life
Bill Hansen’s Aug. 17 op-ed, “Students want modern skills. They need a ‘third teacher.,’” weighed in on the conversation about what education should be.
Education at its fullest provides “how to do” and “how to think” skills. Both are critical to a democratic government. The study of history and the intellectual explorations of the past lead to an understanding of our current culture and possible future. Alternative professional programs are directed toward the skills directly related to employment. (However, it’s important to note that the PhD designation recognizes the importance of philosophy as part of high-level technical expertise.)
Both “how to do” and “how to think” skills should be acknowledged in the debates over how education should be designed. One is necessary to make a living. The other is necessary to have an informed, voter-based democracy. Devoting time to both is necessary to maintain a healthy civilization.
George P. Hoskin, Burtonsville
I have grown increasingly frustrated with the discussion about the value of a college degree coming down solely to a financial return on investment. It is a conversation that repeats itself in my family, from my 93-year-old mother to my young adult children. And we agree, the overriding value of a degree is the education itself.
A liberal arts education provides critical thinking skills and a broad base of knowledge and skills that are adaptable throughout a lifetime of working.
Some politicians and commentators have framed the discussion in terms of salary, opining that college is not necessary (especially a liberal arts education) because many labor or technical jobs earn the same as or more than a liberal arts graduate might make.
But a vibrant democracy depends on an educated populace. Before embracing adulthood, young people should have the tools to understand the genesis of the policies being debated by the current government by taking history classes and reading great literature.
Mary Kramer, Miami
Build alternatives to college
The Aug. 13 online Roundup, “‘Irrelevant’: Four writers discuss if college is worth it,” danced around an uncomfortable reality. Until the country has better alternatives, college is the best and worst option we’ve got.
Yes, college is unquestionably the best choice if families have the money for it. But for the vast majority of Americans taking on debt to pay for higher education, a degree is likely to be worth the expense only if it checks one of three boxes: it’s from a prestigious school, it offers work-based learning experiences, or it is in a major with a clear pathway, such as many science, technology, engineering or mathematics programs. Absent all three, and especially at the middling, expensive schools Matthew Schmitz rightly warned against, prospective students should think hard before taking out student loans.
In some other developed countries, college is just one of many funded, publicized and accepted pathways to good jobs. But here in the United States, we still think of apprenticeships as the purview of the trades.
Funding apprenticeships and building the organizations that help them run would create career-launch options that don’t involve young people taking on unacceptable monetary risk. It would also offer families who agree that college isn’t the right path for them somewhere else to turn.
Ryan Craig, Los Angeles
The writer is vice chair of the board of Apprenticeships for America.
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