Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 349 Editor's Choice: 43
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Fix Mexico? Good Luck!
[Read the article: How to stop illegal Canadian immigration]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But, instead of trying to help to improve the conditions in Mexico so that the Mexican people can have a country to be proud of we build a fence that won't really work.
Unfortunately, Mexico is run by a bunch of kleptocrats who make ours look like amateurs when it comes to trashing a country in order to line your pockets. The only "help" you could send Mexico that might possibly make a difference would be an assortment of firearms for every man, woman and child plus enough ammo to exterminate Mexico's ruling class and all of their hired thugs.
Even then, a new kleptocracy would probably establish itself weeks after you swept aside the old one, anyhow.
I'm not sure why it's America's responsibility to go around "fixing" other countries to begin with. We're already supporting Mexico's ruling elites, by taking 20 million or so people off their hands that they're either too stupid or too greedy to support and giving them the jobs and social services their own country is unwilling to provide.
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Making The Taxpayers Responsible For Kleptocracy
[Read the article: How to stop illegal Canadian immigration]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]America does all it can to keep Mexico a third world country so that we can exploit Mexico's resources and people for all they're worth
I'm sorry, but making American taxpayers bear the burden of multinational corporations' attempts to keep Mexico's population subjugated is just inexcusable. So long as that keptocracy remains in power in Mexico, any money you funnel down there to "help the people" is just going to end up in the clutches of the ruling elite. It's welfare for Mexican billionaires. It never has and never will be passed along to the Mexican people. Period.
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Want To Marry Your Dog?
[Read the article: Legalizing love and commitment]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I didn't know trolls liked dogs.
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Probably Not
[Read the article: New world consumers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How the World Works wonders if negative sentiment about trade in the United States will change when consumers in the world's emerging economies replace American shoppers as the engine of the global economy.
Nope, because for the most part those consumers won't be buying goods made in the United States. We don't even buy many goods made in the United States anymore, because not many goods are made in the United States anymore. Housing was the one "manufacturing" sector doing well, and now it's collapsed. That's why unemployment is at such crushing levels, personal incomes are stagnant or falling and our trade and budget deficits continue to spiral.
The only impact increasing consumer spending overseas is going to have on America is on commodity prices, which are skyrocketing. This is a negative for most Americans, since we have to import so much energy along with certain metals and even a lot of food.
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Eventually . . .
[Read the article: New world consumers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Eventually the sun will go nova, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it.
We've been hearing the same tired refrain from the Right now for decades. Eventually this "free trade" (it's anything but, though that's another matter) will result in a cornucopia of jobs here in the US. To date though, it's only resulted in record profits for multinational corporations, based out of tax free havens, and an almost feudal division of wealth between the haves and the have nots.
Those benefits aren't here for 99% of the population, and they aren't coming. Ever. You're more likely to get a visit from the Easter Bunny, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. It's another conservative fantasy.
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Wouldn't Count On This Being The End, Even In Sacramento
[Read the article: Life at the bottom]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Prices probably still have a ways to fall in Sacramento. There's still an inventory glut in the market, even with the recent uptick in sales, and foreclosure activity could actually pick up next year, when another wave of rate resets hit higher-value mortgages. That means in addition to all of the (generally) cheaper subprime properties sitting on the market, there will be higher-end homes with declining values. That'll further suppress the value of the subprime properties - why buy Velveeta when you can get caviar for 10-20% more?
And if layoffs continue to mount you're going to find fewer and fewer folks even qualify for a mortgage, on any property. That could be a real issue in Sacramento, as the California state government needs to trim billions from its budget.
The fat lady hasn't sung yet.
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$69,000 down
[Read the article: Life at the bottom]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not many American households have $69,000 to plunk down on a downpayment. Checked our savings rate lately? It's negative - a legacy of 30 years of right wing control and the bankrupting of America.
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New World Resources?
[Read the article: What's the matter with China?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kenneth Pommeranz, who in "The Great Divergence" ascribes European ascendancy over Asia to the acquisition of material resources in the New World which enabled the Industrial Revolution.
Huh?!? What "New World" resources enabled the Industrial Revolution? Seems to me Europe had all the resources it needed.
Europe invented science - the Greeks to be specific - and I suspect this has a lot more to do with European ascendancy than any New World resources. Competition between European states probably didn't hurt either, and while it's true China went thru periods of instability, they were nothing like what went on in Europe pretty much from the fall of the Roman Empire thru WWII.