LETTERS

Work indicates need

All that is written and spoken contending that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs overlooks one important economic principle.

The number of employees is determined by the amount of work to be done, not by the minimum wage.

If McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, etc., for example, need 30 employees to handle the work to be done, they do not have 31 or more. They have 30 and cannot reduce to 29 if the work to be done requires 30 employees.

When I started work in 1938 as a teenager, I was paid 25¢ an hour, $2 a day. There are still some among us who wish they could still hire people for 25¢ an hour.

GEORGE W. McCLAIN Little Rock

Running government

Someone in a letter to the Voices page a few weeks ago wondered if corporations and companies were the ones running the government. Well, they just might be.

In my opinion, this country has gone from being a capitalist government to a greedy capitalist government, and the Supreme Court in its infinite wisdom has declared that corporations and companies are people who can make unlimited decisions in our government concerning all the people, not just some of the people.

When it comes re-election time, I’m sure they know it’s easier to get a million-dollar donation from one person than it is to get a dollar donation from a million working people.The person who donated the million dollars wants something in return for his money, as do the million workers who donated their dollar.

Who do you think is going to get their way?

The problem is every person is born with some greed in them. Some people are in a position to super-feed their greed, some just to feed their greed, but it seems the biggest majority are the recipients of the greedy who have no one or place to feed their greed on.

So the people with the most money to give away can control the government through big donations, so who do you think runs the government?

D.E. HUNTER Benton

Anything to back him

I am sure many Democrats are behind the president about raising the minimum wage.

Too bad that the same group of nuts, including the president, who want to up the minimum wage is basically saying no to the great Americans in the service of these United States who are being treated as they have been. Very sad!

It seems Democrats want to vote to cut many dollars from the armed services, and from those who have retired from the armed services, who gave many years of their lives to protect us.

It is also a shame that many of the Democrats apparently will do anything to back the president. Wake up, America.

PAT FLOWERS SR. Cabot

Purchasing freedom

Recently, two oil billionaire brothers who inherited, but did not “build,” their fortune complained loudly that government was impinging on their freedom. They apparently want the freedom to buy our government with misleading, offensive campaign ads and are hoping we’ll vote against our own best interests.

They’re betting obscene amounts of money that we aren’t paying attention. They’re betting that, hearing the word “freedom,” our emotional juices will flow while our mental faculties cease to function.

Yet, in fact, I believe they’re actually buying our freedom.

We’ll be free to breathe filthy air, drink dirty water, and work longer hours for stagnant wages in soon-to-be unsafe workplaces while the stock market soars in tandem with executive salaries. Seniors will be free to enjoy a less-secure retirement while college-bound kids languish in a prison of debt. Women, gays, minorities and the poor will be free to enjoy second-class citizenship. Veterans will be free to have their needs unmet while military/ industrial special interests seek ways to perpetuate war. The middle class will be free to witness its own demise.

We’ll be free to watch our representative democracy become a plutocracy while our founding patriots will be free to roll over in their final resting places, their noble experiment a footnote to history. Finally, we’ll be free to let our attention wander, in apathy and misinformation, just long enough to watch our planet self-destruct.

But let’s not blame Chuck and Dave. Pogo was probably right. The real enemy just might be “us.” LINDA A. FARRELL Bella Vista

They’ve had a chance

It is amazing to me that having, I believe, the worst president and administration in the history of the United States, what with all the scandals, Obamacare, Benghazi, IRS, etc., you still get letters from people touting how good Barack Obama, Mike Ross and Mark Pryor are at their jobs. They want to give them another chance.

I believe that’s the same line of logic they used with Obama, and look where that’s got us. The RINO Republicans aren’t much better.

I say throw ’em all out and vote in new people such as Asa Hutchinson and Tom Cotton. I don’t believe they could do any worse, and they just might be an improvement!

DAN ARNDT Mena

Make check out to …

It seems the U.S.A. has the greatest form of government that money can buy: Bribe or donate your way to power. TOM C. BUCKTHORPE Little Rock