The rich are different from us

Writing in today's "i" newspaper, Hamish McRae makes some thought-provoking points in his article on China and the West. He draws attention to the interdependence of the world economy. This is the same point Marx made in the nineteenth century.

However, he is wrong to equate the "best brains" with the "dollar millionaires". The rich might employ bright people but that is not the same thing. Their own intellectual accomplishments are more open to question.

Dominic Cummings promotes the eugenicist views that the rich are genetically superior to the rest of the human race. Eugenics was the view of Doctor Mengele and the Nazis and it has dropped out of popularity since then.

There is no evidence that the rich have this superiority. When F Scott Fitzgerald asserted that "the rich are different from us," Ernest Hemingway succinctly responded, "Yes, they have more money."

The Chinese regime is a caricature of socialism in which there are millionaires. Socialism is based on democracy and equality and there is not much of either in China. A trade war between China and the West threatens jobs on both sides of the divide. Workers in China and the West have a common interest. Committee for a Workers' International

Non fiction books by Derek and Angela McMillan