Billionaires, having put the squeeze on US-funded science as well as everything else the state needs to do, are using their money to direct scientific research.

We have to take away from those billionaires the ill-gotten gains they achieved through corrupting our laws and regulatory agencies. Most of it should go to the Americans they have impoverished, but some should go to the public treasury to fund all the things that states ought to do.

Above all we should not let these billionaires buy legitimacy for their overlarge share of our national income by giving away a fraction of it, even if the causes they give it to are good ones.