GOP economics: Letters to the editor, March 11, 2020

GOP solution is none at all

A past Bee editorial cartoon illustrated the distribution of goods and services in the U.S. using a pie evenly divided into eight slices. Seven slices were consumed by the wealthiest 20%. The remaining piece was left to be divided among the bottom 80% of the population. I doubt little has changed. Trump’s policies work best for the wealthy who pay disproportionately less taxes.

For the 80% left behind:

▪ Costs rise while incomes stagnate.

▪ 30% of workers need more than one job to survive.

▪ Corporations downsize or fail, leaving workers unemployed.

▪ Housing and health care remain unaffordable many more.

▪ Wall Street and banks offer little reward.

The Republican solution:

▪ Continued welfare for the rich.

▪ Eliminating food stamps, health care, and other protections for many less fortunate.

▪ Borrowing from Social Security and Medicare for the “wall.” No mention of returning the 3.1trillion already borrowed.

▪ Privatize SS and Medicare. Invest taxpayer contributions in private corporations instead of government insured bonds. Choosing the privateers to manage workers’ pensions (Tim Walberg, R-Mich).

I cannot vote for a party who has so little regard for 80% of Americans and is willing to bankrupt this country on the whims of a fascist thug.

CART program a real winner

I thought that the article on CART high school was great. It talked about kids loving school, learning real-life, problem-solving skills, standards mastery, and creating solutions to concerns that they had about their lives. The misleading title, though, being all about CART “raising test scores” ruined things.

Is that why you think the parents sent their kids there? For higher test scores? All the evidence provided was just the opposite, in terms of reasoning, why the school is exceptionally valuable in design and purpose. Everything that is needed in our public school system is being done there to prepare our youth for rich careers.

Even more inexplicably, it was said this model could be replicated, but was too expensive. Really? You mean the right kind of education that everyone deserves costs a lot? That autonomy and freedom to teach effectively and learn creatively costs more than what we are spending now on our test-and-punish system?

How about this: Dump the useless testing and allow all schools to become a CART-school with the billions of dollars you save. Turns out it’s OK to throw more money at the problem if the solution is right in front of your face.

Community choice energy is best

In this new era dominated by wildfire catastrophe, Californians must prepare for challenges that lie ahead. As a recent Fresno State graduate with emphasis in environmental science and city-regional planning, I’d like to assert that it is critical to improve our outdated electrical grid. More specifically, the historical business conventions of the investment owned utility (IOU) model must be revisited. By now, it is clear that placing control over a vast power-grid in the hands of a select few entities has propensity to lead to human suffering. The leveled city of Paradise is just one unfortunate example.

Though communities within an IOU service territory have historically had no choice about their electricity service, a program called community choice energy is shifting this paradigm. As the costs of solar and wind energy have plummeted in recent years, the emergence of clean, cheap, and sustainable power is providing municipalities an opportunity to take control of their energy needs. California now has 19 operational community choice energy agencies that offer clean, competitively priced, and renewable energy to 160 cities. The time is now for Fresno to “be bold” and conduct a feasibility study to explore the potential benefits of forming an agency.

Lots of people making trash

I fully support Darren Stenvers’ recent letter in The Bee. I would like at make one addition, and that is I agree the homeless people create a gigantic trash problem.

However, I cannot tell you how many times I see people throw trash out of their car window. This is mainly trash from their fast food stop.

Overall, the people of Fresno take no pride in their city...who throws trash out of a car window except pigs? And even worse, they sit in a public parking lot, change their baby’s diaper and leave it on the ground next to the car. What?

If our police force actually ticketed people who litter, not only would we have an tremendous amount of money for the city, people might actually think before they toss.

This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "GOP economics: Letters to the editor, March 11, 2020."