In his Feb. 7 letter “Another tiresome attack on business from the left,” Sean Flaherty claims that “there will always be individuals who refuse to help themselves.” If so, then it would follow that those who have “sacrificed to build a successful enterprise” need not trouble themselves with such people. Evidently, the rich totally deserve their success because of their hard work and sacrifice. The undeserving and their children deserve all the savage consequences of poverty.

However, Flaherty also writes that we should “get creative in helping those who genuinely want to improve their lives.” So, apparently, there are people who actually deserve help. He seems to agree that not all poor people are poor because they refuse to help themselves.