Wealth Gap

Re “The Net Revolution Spawns a Fast Caste,” Commentary, Jan. 20: Subsistence living will be with us for the foreseeable future. Extending the communications infrastructure worldwide gives educated people around the world an opportunity to make the same pay for the same work. Urban labor pay rates will follow. Subsistence agriculture will remain just that. The lowest rung, scavenging to survive, will remain just that.

Michael Dertouzos is correct in saying that literacy is the key for many of the world’s citizens, but I do not see how subsistence living will ever go away, despite our best intentions and desires. We are therefore doomed to hear forever that the “gap between rich and poor” is widening. Although we are adding rungs to the top of the ladder, the bottom rung will be occupied as long as there are people who are prohibited from, unable or unwilling to climb to the next rung.

JIM KETCHAM

Malibu