Phil Membury argues in the July 29 issue of The Press that there are no magical techniques for the wealthy to acquire more money and hang on to what they've got. He's wrong, as an example will show.

In 2008, I was attending a Bible study class. One of the elderly ladies came into the church auditorium upset, and I asked her what was wrong. She told me that she had lost $12,000 from her investments. While the millionaire bankers who caused the melt down got billions in TARP money and incredible incomes, she lost a majority of her retirement savings. It's been called the privatization of profit and the socialization of loss. That, Mr. Membury is the truth you want to face. That truth is a stacked deck against the middle class and working population. We need a fair deal and a pit boss to make sure the gambler from New Orleans is shuffling our hard earned cash honestly.

Membury calls the general population "crybabies and petty whiners." He then claims the disadvantaged are somehow inferior. He says "you rail against these people because you don't have the guts, the gumption, the talent, the drive, the intelligence or the luck to be one of the wealthy." He had to include the luck clause because, if not, Paris Hilton might have to get a job. I would say a woman whose husband disappeared and with three children to feed is running close to the brink. She'll be lucky to make ends meet. She certainly has more guts and gumption than the average desk pilots on Wall Street.

He calls the vast majority of people "pitiful creatures" who are the victims of the liberal's nanny state. We aren't asking for a nanny but rather a pit boss to insure a fair deal. Do you return your Social Security check to the Treasury? How about Medicare? If you accept either then you're a hypocritical "pitiful creature?"

JEFF BOURGET

Coeur d'Alene