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Friday's letters: Inequality threatens U.S. economy

 
Published Oct. 23, 2014

Income disparity worries Fed chair | Oct. 18

Inequality threatens the economy

Janet Yellen, head of the Federal Reserve, warns that rising income inequality is a great danger to the economic health of the country. Her words reflect the historical reaction of the Progressive Party in its 1890 convention in Topeka, Kan., during the dark days of the robber barons. Mary Elizabeth Lease, the great populist orator, told that convention: "Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street." Those words work just as well today.

In the 1890s, the response to poverty, foreclosures, hunger and unemployment for the poorest half of our population was the passage of consumer and labor protection laws. Usury was deemed a crime, unions were given rights to organize, and trust-busting legislation was passed. In the past half-century we have seen those noble measures watered down or repealed and we have consequently found ourselves in the new age of robber barons.

In 1892, the People's Party political platform said: "Corruption dominates the ballot box, the legislatures, the Congress, and touches the ermine of the bench." Those words also seem to me to be particularly valid today, considering recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign finance along with state legislature gerrymandering.

Ian MacFarlane, St. Petersburg

Waterfront property

No one owns the tides

With ever-expanding tourism and the gobbling up of precious shoreline by wealthy investors, people are routinely being denied access to the water due to archaic tidal laws passed by the rich for the rich.

Under Florida law, a person wading knee-deep in water can be told to get off private property. He can wander along the shore following the wave action and be arrested for trespassing. A boater seeking refuge from a storm can run into fence preventing him from getting to safety. This is absurd.

Florida needs to change the law to recognize, as 48 states do, that private property ends where the actual shoreline begins and not some theoretical, mysterious line 50 yards out to sea. No one landing on the shore from his kayak should be subject to arrest as long as he stays within a few feet of the waterline.

I'm not against people owning beachfront property, but no one should own the tide.

Phillip Marmanillo, Safety Harbor

Geography as commuting hurdle | Oct. 19, letter

Spanning another bay area

Concerning the comment about the large body of water affecting commuters, look at BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit. Seems to me San Francisco Bay is just as large, if not larger, and they have service connecting Oakland and San Francisco.

John Bassett, St. Petersburg

New push against Ebola | Oct. 18

Politics isn't a dirty word

Irony of ironies, politicos on the right join in a chorus of criticism of a politico, Ron Klain, as coordinator of action on the Ebola crisis. Their self-confessed lack of confidence in their own profession is a telling hypocrisy.

Are they in government simply because it is a necessary evil or, worse, to ensure its failure? Politics is still the management of the public good, is it not?

James McClafferty, Sun City Center

More hard questions for DCF | Oct. 20, editorial

Better coordination needed

Deaths of children under the watch of agencies like the Department of Children and Families could be prevented if the directorship and management of child protection was better coordinated.

The Sept. 11 attacks forced the U.S. government to look at how it coordinates policing and intelligence inside and outside the nation. Child protection is farmed out to private and public institutions, with funding coming from a variety of purses — state, county, private.

The senior management in private sector child protection is forced to spend time ensuring their funding is not going elsewhere, when they should be looking after the programs they are heading.

If a family moves from one county to another, it is easy for children to disappear. If they move from state to state, it can only get worse. Until there is a national database of children at risk, and one organization to have oversight, there will be more family tragedies.

Mary Finnegan, Largo

Greenlight Pinellas

Why I'm voting no

I do not agree with your endorsement of the Greenlight Pinellas project for several reasons.

Among them, the sales tax in Pinellas County would be raised to 8 percent, the highest in the state. That is not a good position for a county that depends on and competes fiercely with neighboring counties for the tourist trade.

In addition, it is typical for proponents of proposed rail service like that included in this proposal to exaggerate ridership and revenue projections while grossly understating cost projections; a combination that leads to ever escalating taxes.

I urge our leaders to find a way to improve local transit within the current tax structure.

Gus Pries, St. Petersburg

His name is Zeke. And he's a wonder. Oct. 20

Heartwarming story

Thank you, Tampa Bay Times, for this truly heartwarming front-page story. Given the plethora of news regarding Ebola, the political wrangling, and the overall sorry state of the world, reading about Zeke was such a day brightener despite knowing that his days and those of Gerald Rittinger are winding down. What a blessing that they've had each other for all these years.

Sue E. Conrad, North Redington Beach