The guiding principle
"As long as Americans believe their country has vital interests everywhere on earth, they will be led by people who believe the same." This is from The Brothers by Stephen Kinzer.
Fundamental assumptions that guide American foreign policy today have not changed much since the Dulles brothers were in charge of the State Department and the CIA at the same time during the 1950s and '60s. I believe exceptionalism, their guiding principle, has led to the deaths of millions and chaos in the world today.
When will we as a nation learn to be a good citizen of the world and begin to live and let live?
JOHN GRAY
Greenland
Idea's time has come
Dick Sawyer is absolutely right, both about automation and the need for a basic income plan.
Automation threatens not only factory jobs but also transport, health-care workers, airport security, office support, real estate agents, bankers, construction workers, and journalists. By some estimates, a quarter of jobs may be replaced in 10 years, a third to half of them in 20 years. New kinds of jobs may or may not open up.
At best, automation will disrupt people's lives. At worst, it will cause mass unemployment and social unrest.
Fifty years ago some foresaw these problems. The front page of the New York Times carried a letter signed by 1,200 economists, saying that everyone in the nation should be "assured an income no less than the officially recognized definition of poverty." In 1969, President Richard Nixon was on the verge of offering a basic-income plan until an Ayn Randian adviser gave him a report based on distorted history. Basic income disappeared from public memory, but automation continued.
Basic income would not cause a labor shortage. Unsatisfied with a subsistence income, many would want to work at what jobs remain. Yet it would be a blessing for students, new parents, craftspeople, inventors, musicians, writers, caregivers for ailing family members, and many others.
The basic-income concept has several names and plans, with pilot programs in countries such as Canada, Finland, Uganda, Netherlands, India, and Brazil. Look under the acronyms BIG and BIEN for more information.
CORALIE KOONCE
Fayetteville
Something in water
A recent letters section contained a letter from a Fayetteville writer outraged over Dr. Bradley Gitz's column of Jan. 9 as "right-wing elitist fundamentalism" with "oh-so-erudite creds" and feeding "'the masses' the untruth," etc. The Gitz column was actually about the recent election.
A few years ago I began to notice a correlation between the writing style of letters from certain areas, varying from logical, religious, bombastic, informative, mean-spirited, or just dumb, depending on the subject matter. The patterns were easy to spot, and the Fayetteville letters were noticeable.
A friend who lived there at one time and who traveled the state a lot agreed to help. I washed up some empty jelly jars, and my friend got water samples for me from Fayetteville and six other towns around the state, and had them tested. There wasn't much difference, but finally the testing agency decided there was a slight difference between Fayetteville samples and those of the other towns. It's possible that Fayetteville may be the site of a new rare earth discovery, but it needs more investigation. They all agree, however, there is definitely something in the Fayetteville water.
WALTER SKELTON
Little Rock
Doesn't seem logical
It is amazing to me that Republican members of the Arkansas Legislature, supposedly the champions of "small government," believe that their government should monitor the food we are allowed to buy, be involved in our intimate medical decisions, and decree that their personal religious beliefs will be adopted by everyone in the state of Arkansas.
Small government? I don't think so.
KATHLYN ROBINETTE
Green Forest
Sales tax on Internet
The push to collect sales taxes on Internet sales appears to be receiving a new push in Congress. The proposed legislation has two basic problems. One, regardless of the protestations of its supporters, the bill would increase the tax payments of consumers and is in fact a tax increase. And two, if distributors located in the United States are required to collect sales taxes on all domestic retail sales, they will likely move out of the U.S., not only to avoid the requirement of collection, but also to gain a competitive advantage over domestic Internet distributors.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution to both these problems: Simply pass a tax law which makes all sales taxes paid, regardless of the recipient, a dollar-for-dollar offset to an individual's federal income-tax liability. Thus, if a product is purchased from a local retailer, the sales tax will be paid but the taxpayer will recover the payment in his or her reduced federal income-tax payment. The result is that the Internet seller has no sales-tax advantage over the local seller. If that is the only advantage possessed by Internet sellers over local sellers, local sellers should thrive.
Since distributors, regardless of their location, incur no responsibility for sales-tax collection, they have no incentive to move overseas. To the contrary, to minimize transportation costs on domestic sales, they have an incentive to locate in the United States. The second problem is also solved.
Finally, adoption of this proposal would result in a tax decrease. All members of Congress who have taken the Norquist pledge and are passionate about fairness for the brick-and-mortar retailers should be delighted to support the proposal offered here.
LEN WHITE
Fayetteville
Pay attention to that
Perhaps Terry L. Kennedy of Lamar should spend more time reading Donald Trump's tweets, speeches, and other public utterances, and less time looking at cartoons. Chaucer said, "If gold rusts, what will iron do?"
CHARLES TAUNTON
Fayetteville
Editorial on 01/23/2017