Re: Students learn that same textbooks cost less overseas, Oct. 23.
The list just continues to grow of how different U.S. companies price-gouge the American people.
First the drug companies overcharge on prescription drugs, when most everyone now knows that the same drug can be bought for much less from Canada and Mexico. The drug companies' solution to this disparity in cost is to stop other countries from selling the U.S.-made drugs to U.S. citizens.
Next, we hear that the U.S. company Halliburton in Iraq charges the U.S. Army (the American taxpayers) about $1.50 per gallon of gasoline while the gasoline can be bought at local Iraqi gas stations for about 15 cents per gallon.
Now in the news comes a report that student textbooks, produced here, can be bought for half the price from overseas countries like England. The major U.S. publishers now are trying to correct this state of affairs by preventing foreign book wholesalers from reselling the textbooks to U.S. students.
The greed of the U.S. companies and their callous disregard for the American people's health, taxes and students' educational cost is disgraceful. And what is being done about it is shameful to say the least.
-- V. Paradis, Seminole
More bad news for the middle class
Re: Middle class assault: college books, pharmaceuticals.
Recent articles on these subjects indicate the disregard for American citizens by our businesses and government. It seems the only important factors are profit, political favors and financial backing. I am very much in favor of profit. I am not in favor of profit at tomorrow's expense or profit at the expense of others. This doesn't seem to be the case with our government or business leaders.
Take college books. The publishers claim they need to sell in Europe the same books at less than half the price charged American students because of market conditions. I ask what conditions? Are the incomes less than half as much? Does the tuition cost more? Or is it that they have been able to lie to the American student about costs before being found out via the Internet. Now they are attempting to put pressure on foreign distributors to stop the flow back to America of the books printed here. Congratulations American business.
What about pharmaceuticals? Same story. We Americans must pay up to twice as much for the same medications as our neighbors to the north and in Europe. Why? Because, they say, if we don't there will be no money for research and development. And as usual, businesses, this time with government help, are attempting to stop this flow of their product back to America.
Why do American citizens have to pay the expense so others don't have to? We already work harder, more hours and take less time off than people in those other countries. Is it because their governments won't allow their citizens to be overcharged at the same time knowing our government officials are so busy with political payback they will look the other way while Americans are overcharged?
I don't know the reasons. From what I have read I think I can see some of the results, though. Years ago one parent stayed home and took care of the children. Families saved a little money and lived fairly well. Today, both parents work, the children are left with others or on their own, their savings are next to nill and they are very heavily in debt. They worry that their jobs will go overseas. Bankruptcies are at an all-time high and expected to grow. Well so much for the middle class.
Could it be that we need to step back and be concerned about America in ways other than just protection from terrorists?
-- Dwaine Bettis, Safety Harbor
There ought to be a law
Re: Students learn that same textbooks cost less overseas.
What the textbook publishers are doing with their domestic pricing scheme is the very same gouging that the drug companies are perpetrating on the American people. The solution in both these (and many other) cases is painfully simple: Congress passing legislation forbidding companies from charging Americans more than foreign customers for the very same product.
Unfortunately, you and I will never see such legislation even proposed, much less passed. Our politicians would rather saddle you and me with exorbitant prices and Band-Aid approaches (ie. Medicare drug benefits) rather than risk their special interest money.
-- Jerry Shores, R.N., Pinellas Park
Medicare blimp is mind-boggling
Re: Deal on Medicare drug plan at hand, Oct. 23.
Beneath the continuation of this story there was a small item about the blimp that Medicare has funded in 2003. It boggled my mind to find out that Medicare officials are spending $600,000 this year alone to advertise Medicare's telephone number via blimp!
Why advertise on a blimp? If people don't know about this government program by now, they aren't in this world.
We are already seeing it on TV, magazines, buses, and papers. Large "books" of each year's benefits are printed in at least two languages and go out to every recipient and anyone nearing age 65. It's clearly indicated in any phone book I have seen. I'm sure all this costs a pretty bundle too. I am inclined to believe that someone in the Medicare administration has a need to supplement the advertising business. I just wish it wasn't with my money!
Don't give me this "Medicare is running out of money" line!
-- Elizabeth Keith, St. Petersburg
What would granny think?
Of all the asinine ideas that come down the bureaucratic pike, the Medicare blimp has to take the cake. Medicare rates are going up, prescription prices are on the rise and the government decides, "Hey, what we really need is a blimp." I am not on Medicare and didn't believe the program would be available by the time I reached the (ever rising) age limit. Now I am sure.
The idea is that the government should be run by people who are well equipped to make decisions on the public's behalf. Ask your grandmother how she feels about the blimp. I'm pretty sure what her response will be.
-- Amy Brown, Inverness
Policy on AIDS is deadly
Re: Misplaced blame, letter, Oct. 19.
The letter writer criticized Robyn Blumner's contention that President Bush's policy of cutting off family planning funds to organizations that have anything to do with abortion contributes to the spread of AIDS in Africa. He further said the suggestion that the policy is to blame for the growth of AIDS in Africa is laughable and that AIDS would spread with or without the "gag" rule.
What is really laughable is this writer's ignorance. Part of the funding provided free condoms, which are the best hope of preventing the spread of AIDS. No one, ever, has been able to get 100 percent adherence to "abstinence only" policies. Is then the intent to stop providing condoms to make sure of punishment?
Reproductive health is not merely concerned with preventing pregnancy, it also includes prenatal care. The proper medication can prevent the passage of AIDS to the unborn child.
Of course, Bush's policies are contributing to the spread of AIDS in Africa.
-- Marilyn J. Day, Beverly Hills
Help our own kids first
Bringing those six Haitian children to the United States for life-saving surgery is fine and dandy. What about helping our own kids here first? There are plenty of U.S. kids who are citizens and need life-saving medical procedures done.
I say, quit taking care of everybody else in these foreign countries and take care of our kids first. I'm tired of all this. We should come first, as U.S. citizens. Help our own!
-- David Van Buhler, Pinellas Park
Typical for Tallahassee
Re: Scripps vs. education.
It is typical of Gov. Bush and the Republican Legislature that while they carp and whine about not having the money to implement the public's mandate for smaller school class sizes, they have no problem throwing almost $400-million at an out-of-state company!
-- Emiliano Quindiagan, Tierra Verde
Sapp judgment
Re: The world according to Sapp, by Bill Maxwell, Oct. 19.
Well, I don't know what the brothers at the barber shop are saying, but I say, "Bravo!" Once again Bill Maxwell has hit the nail squarely on the head. I like Warren Sapp too, but (in my opinion) he does need to clean up his act a bit and start behaving like an adult for the good of the team and its fans.
-- Linda Wood, St. Petersburg
The world is their ashtray
Re: Beaches might be next to post no-smoking signs, Oct. 16.
I agree with the efforts of Fort Myers Beach to propose a smoking ban for its beaches. I wish that Pinellas County would follow. I think that something should be done to keep smokers from using our streets as their ashtrays.
Have you noticed the smokers walking - downtown, on our streets, in parking lots - and when they are done, they give the butt a quick flick and think nothing of it? Have you noticed that on any given day, at any location, smokers discard their spent cigarettes in record numbers?
The next time you are at an intersection, take a look at the curb or median. It is amazing how many cigarette butts line the roads. To make matters worse, those butts get washed into the stormwater systems that drain into our bays and waterways.
Is it printed on the backs of cigarette packs to open, light up, enjoy, then discard the butt out of your window? Is it that vehicles don't come with ashtrays anymore? Or is it that too many smokers are pigs and use our world as their ashtrays? I wish that someone somewhere would do something to get the message through to these people who are always crying about their "smokers' rights" and realize that we all have rights to a clean environment.
I favor the ban of all public smoking since most smokers can't seem to be responsible to clean up after themselves. I would like to think that the sheriff's deputies could be responsible for some enforcement, but often I notice they are throwing their cigarette butts out as well. I would just like to see something get done about this already out-of-control problem.
-- Joe Hutzler, Tampa
Updated comics are a treat
Thank you, editors, for bringing the comics into the 21st century. The new changes to the comic pages are terrific, and you should not be deterred by the naysayers who have been venting recently.
The drawing of Get Fuzzy is remarkable, and the political edge Aaron McGruder demonstrates in The Boondocks highlights him as a second-generation Garry Trudeau. I look forward to each morning's delivery of the St. Petersburg Times to see what these new treats bring. Keep 'em coming.
-- Ron Edenfield, St. Petersburg
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