“There must be something unresolved about a person who feels the need to fill the sky with noise and capture the attention of everyone he passes, whether he is on the road or the water,” says George Monbiot in his article (Extreme wealth has a deadening effect on the super-rich – and that threatens us all, 24 July). I am sure this would have hit a chord with many who live in or visit the North York Moors national park, as we are plagued by a small aircraft performing aerial stunts at weekends and on fine, sunny days. The peace and quiet is interrupted by a noise of varying pitch and volume as it climbs and falls, twists and turns – the sound amplified as it rebounds off the dale sides into the dales.
National parks are supposed to be places for quiet enjoyment, with restrictions put on activities for those on the ground, but the skies seem free to be abused. We can accept low-flying jet aircraft when they are training – they come and are gone – but this loitering and polluting the air for one person’s pleasure should be curbed.
Richard Colman
Bransdale, North Yorkshire
• George Monbiot is quite right. I can empathise with his joy in kayaking, because my greatest pleasure is walking in the countryside, which is full of interest and beauty. It costs little and can be on one’s own or with one of the many walking groups.
What pleasure do the ultra-rich get from all their money? I am lucky to have a good pension so I can afford to do what I like, and I cannot think of anything that I would want if I had more. As shown by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson’s book The Spirit Level, greater inequality is bad for the rich, who are less happy and more fearful, as well as the poor. We must, as a country, take action to reverse the gross increase in inequality that has occurred since the 1980s.
Martin Wright
Otley, West Yorkshire
• George Monbiot describes so well the effect of great wealth on those who possess it. All my life I have enjoyed playing in semiprofessional jazz bands. Over the years, dozens of rich, successful people have hired our services for their parties, often in properties we would otherwise be excluded from. I cannot count the number of times that a rich person has engaged me in conversation, ruefully wishing that they had a creative outlet like music. Implicit in this wish is an unspoken regret that his wealth is all he has to show after a lifetime dedication to making money.
Monbiot’s description of this as the deadening effect of enormous wealth is frighteningly accurate.
Bob Caldwell
Badby, Northamptonshire
• George Monbiot is right – there is “something unresolved” about the ultra-rich. Jim Casy explains why in The Grapes of Wrath: “If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it ’cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he’s poor in hisself, there ain’t no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an’ maybe he’s disappointed that nothin’ he can do’ll make him feel rich …”
Gerard Hastings
Céret, France
• I can’t remember who said it, but after reading George Monbiot’s article, I was reminded of this quote: “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gives it to.”
Carolyn Coupland
Bath
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