Re: The best hope for working poor, by Robyn Blumner, April 25.
The greatest myth of modern times is that we can, by legislation or concerted action, correct an alleged "economic imbalance."
So when I read Blumner suggesting that the working poor can lift themselves out of poverty by unionizing, I have to just shake my head in wonder, or is it disbelief?
The working poor are not poor because some hard-hearted capitalist is oppressing them; they're poor because the value of their labor is not enough to warrant higher wages. If their labor were worth more, someone would offer them a higher wage. Will it be equal to what they produce? No, because the wealth they produce is partly due to labor and partly to capital, and they can only be paid for the labor. The absence of an offer of a higher wage defines the value of the labor; it's "what the market will bear."
The only way the working poor can progress is for them to make their labor more valuable.
-- Frank Clarke, Oldsmar
False hope in unions
Re: The best hope for working poor, by Robyn Blumner.
Unions are not the answer. If they were, union membership would not be on the decline.
The answer is hard work, personal responsibility and education. Some Americans have come to believe that the American dream is: get your GED, have some kids, work for few years, and the government or some union will take care of them (and their kids).
Blumner cites the poverty line for a "family of one adult and three children." There's where personal responsibility and education come in. Properly educated people who exercise personal responsibility don't end up with an $8 an hour job, three kids, $5,000 in credit card bills, and an inability to write a sentence with correct grammar.
We are no longer at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Blaming Wal-Mart is easy, but Wal-Mart gives Americans just what they want: lower prices. If you want to punish Wal-Mart, don't shop there. Blumner's column gives false hope - both dangerous and unfair - to the working poor she is attempting to help.
-- Michael Markham, Clearwater
Buy American
Re: The best hope for working poor.
Robyn Blumner's perspective is right on the mark. But it is not just about Wal-Mart. Unions can help but that is a slow process.
If you don't like what is happening, boycott the corporation. That is what I do, even though I have a low retirement income. I have not bought a foreign car for more than 50 years. I am thoroughly disgusted with the Chinese imports. I can't blame the Chinese. I blame President Bush and the U.S. Congress for granting most favored trade status, instead of opening the market to all competition. International politics be damned.
Cheap imports are driving the market and also depressing the wages. Corporate greed isn't helping. America needs to rethink the solution. Rebuild America. Manufacture in America. Buy American. It will work for all of us.
-- Bill Burgin, Spring Hill
Health care in crisis
Re: At Bay Pines, swollen bellies, throbbing feet have to wait, April 25.
As a veteran, I really didn't know how to take this article. I have had occasion to be treated by this facility and I offer no complaints.
The length anyone must wait for medical care is not confined or unique within the VA health care system. The private sector is just as bad. If you can't accept this, then you are in good health and have never had reason for emergency treatment.
But in any case, the real issue of health care in this country is strictly monetary, whether it be the private sector or the VA. The private sector has to maintain profits while the federal government has to cut budgets.
All patients, regardless of health facilities, will have pros and cons about their treatment. The health care of Americans, whether veterans or not, has become and is steadily growing as a crisis that should be addressed. The pharmaceutical and insurance industries are enjoying mega profits at your health care expense. I urge voters to start contacting their local representatives and demand affordable and efficient health care. If you don't, things will only get worse.
-- Jack Burlakos, Kenneth City
Limit VA care
Re: At Bay Pines, swollen bellies, throbbing feet have to wait.
Bay Pines and other VA hospitals would be better able to provide timely treatment to retired career military personnel (20 to 30 years of service), if they did not offer medical services and subsidized medicines to veterans who served only a few years and then went on to other careers. All veterans who suffer from service-connected conditions certainly deserve treatment, but benefits for the short-term veterans are unwarranted.
These veterans, of which I am one, already received considerable compensation in the form of the G.I. Bill for education, a generous life insurance policy and other benefits.
-- Arthur Lowrie, Lutz
"Illegal' is accurate
Re: Immigrant students deserve a chance at college, April 25.
Bill Maxwell's column advocating subsidized college educations for illegal immigrants states that "detractors . . . often refer to them . . . as "illegal immigrants' and "illegal aliens.' " After dismissing these terms, he goes on to refer to them as simply immigrants.
We detractors refer to them as illegal immigrants or illegal aliens because they are . . . er . . . immigrants who are here . . . illegally. His effort to make these labels pejorative is just another example of liberals trying to make truth politically incorrect.
There are a finite number of openings in Florida's colleges and universities, which I believe should be available to the sons and daughters of taxpaying legal residents of Florida. For every illegal alien admitted, a citizen would be denied an opportunity for an education.
-- Mike Lyons, Apollo Beach
A matter of fairness
Re: Immigrant students deserve a chance at college.
It is unconscionable to have Florida citizens foot the college education bill for illegal immigrant students who would become eligible for low in-state tuition rates. They already attended public or charter schools at no cost to their parents but paid for from taxes by Florida property owners.
If a Florida high school graduate desired to attend college in Pennsylvania, as an example, he or she would not be eligible for low in-state tuition rates. Although Bill Maxwell is education conscious, he should also consider the fairness of his views.
-- Jack Bjornberg, Clearwater
Heed the heart and poet
Re: A poet looks at war, by Peter Meinke, April 25.
Peter Meinke has courage, something poets had in abundance in the past. These times are different. We write poems about war and faith and belief, but we share them among one another and a small audience of poetry lovers. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The poet is the sayer, the namer... he announces that which no man foretold. The poet is a prophet, the true and only doctor, for the poet is beholder of ideas and the utterer of truth."
We have become meek, holding our place with our fragile work, not daring to alienate those few who purchase our slim books.
If there is truth to be spoken from the heart, who better than the poet to send it like an arrow from his heart to ours, as Meinke does in this essay? He says, "Poetry, despite its modern battle with "obscurity,' is designed to cut against the built-in omnipresent lies of advertising and politics... " The "smell factor" he says poets possess comes from the poet's need to pay close attention to words, and the meaning of words. We are not scanners. We have not studied speed reading. We pay attention. And it is not honest for us to pay attention and then ignore what we are seeing.
T.S. Elliot tells me, every day, "No great artist sees things as they really are - they see more." They see it through their sense of taste, hearing and smell, but mostly through the heart. More people need to be listening to what the heart and the poet are saying.
-- Therese Tappouni, Indian Shores
Extreme views
Re: Rocky's ghosts: Kerry rousing GOP liberals, April 25.
Everyone should realize that Kerry-supporting Republicans are extreme liberals who should not be in the Republican Party anyway, no matter who they are.
George Bush is not far right, as these people claim. He is moderate to liberal at best. He doesn't give wholehearted support to the Texas Republican state platform, which is one of the most conservative in the country. He does not support the conservative candidate for the Senate in Pennsylvania.
If these RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) think the president is on the far right, they are not worth consideration.
-- Jim Doyle, St. Pete Beach
[Last modified May 2, 2004, 01:05:38]
