Letters to the Editor
softdog
Published Letters: 186 Editor's Choice: 8
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proudtexasgirl is a sad texas bigot
[Read the article: Why Jeremiah Wright is so wrong]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"That being said I am SICK AND TIRED of liberals in this country ignoring the misdeeds all over the world ESPECIALLY those done by countries populated and run by people of color. THE WORST deeds, the WORST atrocities, the WORST crimes against humans are done in countries where the primary color is not white, and this is the damn truth."
Listen you racist lunatic - if you were anything but a hate crazed troll and were at all in touch with reality, you'd realize your assertion is so dishonest and absurd - what liberal media exists is decidedly global. Misdeeds all over the world are more than noticed and discussed - in the actual context rather than equating color with savagery. The issue being like atrocities in any country - one group with power harming the other. Skin has little to do with it.
Like most bigots when cornered, you jump issues. Having been exposed as ugly and closed minded and incapable of admitting your viewpoint is at all wrong - you instead start pointing at bad things all those brown people do and scream its the worst.
sadtexasbigot, there's no hope for you.
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Wow. Salon just keeps digging.
[Read the article: Lust in translation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Now, for the ear steam: I think it's unfair to blame this sexual miscommunication on men."
Holy shit. While Joan Walsh goes on and on about sexism in the media, Broadsheet proves you don't have to be a dude to engage in blame the victim bullshit. I can't believe you just related how men ignore signals and STILL put responsibility for rape on alleged "mixed signals".
Y'know what? College age men can memorize tons of puzzles in video games requiring hair trigger moves. They can design new social network applications. They can grasp the slight nuances of sports, movies. They fight in wars. They are very aware of their own fragile feelings and write about them ad naseum in blogs and songs and etc. So don't tell me they can't understand something as obvious as "I need to sleep."
There is no misunderstanding, there's only entitlement and how much one thinks they can get away with.
Nice to see Salon is always willing to step on someone to please the trolls.
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The gap between consequences and the magical payoff is even wider.
[Read the article: The rice paradox]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"How the World Works has no problem with the theory that in the long run, high prices for food commodities and a completely free trade regime would result in greater production (provided farmers don't run into absolute constraints -- such as a lack of land or water or fertilizer inputs.)"
Good point. I would add a bigger problem is the long run is beyond what real people and real suffering can measure. Just ask the rust belt - where are those magical new jobs and opportunities to make up for those lost to trade?
It's annoying when economists use "period of adjustment" and other abstract terms to avoid mentioning real human suffering, but it's infuriating how frequently they lie about the scale, both in impact and length.
There are people who never recovered from losing everything in the savings and loan bailout. The older workers who have their pensions vanish in the Enron collapse didn't recover with the market.
And people who starve to death, or have their health permanently damaged by the shock of free trade will not recover. Those bankrupted by trade will not have any money to boost production.
This is what is happening in India right now. The hunger problem in India is not about a food shortage, it's because vast amounts of the population cannot affort to eat. India's position in the world economy relies on having cheap labor due to massive economic and infrastructure inequality. Without the massive underclass, it couldn't attract investment. This disparity hits rural areas hardest - farmers are killing themselves in record numbers, thousands per year. The less cheap local food there is, the more India's poor is at the mercy of imports and high priced big producers, and thanks to subsidies they can make more exporting rice. Thus you have hunger in the midst of abundance.
Markets thrive on scarcity and speculation - those seeking profits have no interest in who starves as long as they get paid and they get paid more then demand is greater than supply. So no, in fact free trade doesn't lift all boats, it swamps most of them.
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@logicalresponse
[Read the article: The rice paradox]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I agree totally with what you say here Andrew. Another way to say it is that libertarian economists don't understand that people gathering together to give themselves an edge is PART OF THE FREE MARKET."
Exactly. Free market libertarians fail to see beyond dollar profit. There's also opportunity cost, moral capital, the marketplace of the common good, etc. They like to pretend these things are abstractions but they are very real.
Everyone, from the company owner to the homeless guys, is a market participant. And if you refuse to recognize the realities of the entire market, rather than the part you profit from, it may arrange to force you to do so and this will be the correct outcome.
If a company or class of merchants fails to take care of it's ethical and social expenses, riots, revolution or just harsh regulation are they way they end up paying the costs they've incurred.
Ultimately the market is never free.
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Broadsheet - speaking truth to power
[Read the article: The upside of a recession ... sort of]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And the truth is "we looooovvve power".
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rufus, dude
[Read the article: Why Jeremiah Wright is so wrong]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Look, a lot of us are fed up with Salon, but you need to limit your posts. Combine those thoughts into one, or at least limit yourself to two per hour.
Flooding the zone does not make your point any better, it just makes you look insane.