We'll absorb the cost
Joe Biden's experience in finance and economics comes from 47 years in government, an institution that has numerous failures in this arena.
Everyone should be rewarded financially for his/her level of education, skills and experience. However, please consider the following: Increasing the minimum wage only sounds good. The reality of increasing it means many lower-paid, less skilled, less experienced job positions like those held by high school/college students and by minorities/low income will be eliminated. In addition, businesses will have to either absorb the cost and/or raise the price of their products and services to you.
The increase also means more paycheck withholding for Social Security (FICA) and income taxes. (Currently, the Social Security tax is 12.4% and the Medicare tax is 2.9% on gross wages. That is a total of 7.65% by the employee and 7.65% by the employer.) These taxes go to the federal and state (those with income tax) governments. That means the government will have more, but not enough, money now needed to help pay for additional welfare/unemployment programs.
But, of course, as the liberals think, "the government knows how to spend your money better than you do," you will have to absorb the cost of the wage increase.
RICHARD HARRIS
Conway
What's illegitimate?
God help the good people of Osceola if they are as confused as the correspondent who believes that, because 74 million people voted for his candidate, who lost, the winner must be illegitimate. From whence does this logic come, if it can be called logic? If the Kansas City Chiefs score 50 points in Super Bowl LV, but lose because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers score 55, does that make the Bucs illegitimate because you are a Chiefs fan?
If the Democrats had some special ability to win elections illegitimately, why didn't they sweep the House and Senate elections as well? Why was Donald Trump allowed to win in 2016? Oh, yes, I forget, he was God's chosen. Apparently, God chose Joe Biden in 2020, so why is he illegitimate? Is God only right part of the time?
It reminds me of Mike Masterson and others who seem to say that the attempt to overthrow the government of the United States on Jan. 6 by an enraged mob of paranoid right-wing militia groups and rabid brainwashed racists is somehow less criminal because there was also looting and property destruction during generally peaceful Black Lives Matter protests this summer. That somehow one justifies or offsets the other, ignoring the fact that the generally peaceful, multiracial BLM protests were ignited by real cases of police killing unarmed black men and women, not by baseless accusations of voter fraud.
Where did this "we lost so you must have cheated" mentality come from? Let's face it. If anybody cheated it would have been Trump. Did we not all hear his taped conversation with Georgia election officials begging them to "find" enough votes to beat Biden, virtually threatening them with legal prosecution if they did not help him? Who's the real cheater at the table, folks?
DAVID ELI COCKCROFT
Little Rock
Collected terminology
Re editorial "Dream, dream, dream": The Inky Wretch pondered what a group of editorial writers would be called. To help them decide, I turned to James Lipton's book "An Exaltation of Larks."
Starting with page 111, they may choose an Erudition of Editors or perhaps a Chapter of Printers. Page 243 offers several to choose from: a Mangle of Copy Editors, a Caprice of Assignment Editors, a Dyspepsia of City Editors, a Penultimate of Managing Editors, or an Ultimatum of Executive Editors. One might toss in a Pen of Editorial Cartoonists or a Scoop of Reporters as well. A Pique of Political Columnists appears on page 244.
Perhaps the closest I can find comes on page 106 with a Worship of Writers.
Stepping away from those collective nouns depicting writers, they may consider a Squalor of Honest Men from page 281. Rounding this out, a Rack of Sadomasochists on page 160 may also be wholly appropriate.
By whatever term they choose to associate, they are and hopefully always will be a Bastion of Honest Inky Wretches.
JAMES JEFFERY
Little Rock
In the cancel culture
Americans have now had to live through almost 16 years of the cancel culture. It's not enough to disagree with someone any longer. People now believe that they must demand that people be fired (Mike Masterson) or resign (Sen. Tom Cotton).
Mike Masterson had a column asking for an impartial investigation into the election. Senator Cotton had an op-ed that examined what Abraham Lincoln had interpreted of the forming of the nation. It appears both of these men have been misquoted and attacked.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette makes a point of trying to share both sides of the news. I choose not to read columns by Paul Krugman, Jennifer Rubin, and John Brummett. I believe their positions haven't changed in 20 years. I don't demand that the paper cancel them.
America is struggling with a crisis of culture. It seems belief in God, churches and families are all under attack by a relentless media that worships money. Wake up, America.
I do wish that there were more writers like Mike Masterson. He seems to represent a lot of us. I'm a Christian and consider myself politically independent. A recent survey said that there are 33% Democrats, 25% Republicans and 42% independents.
Mr. Masterson had a good suggestion the other day. We should carefully consider our news sources to filter what is true. Fifty years ago the news consisted of the evening local, national news and the newspapers. One hour per day. Now we have 24-hour news programs constantly driving controversies.
STEVE ALLINSON
Benton
Now an unsafe state
The Arkansas Legislature is spending a lot of time and taxpayer money trying to get guns into our society. How can more guns in our society make for a safer environment for families with kids?
Soon every person in Walmart will have a loaded gun in their pockets. Even the kids with their caps on backwards and pants below their hips will have loaded guns in every pocket. If you accidentally bump into one and he decides he didn't like that, then he may shoot you and run out the door and hide in the bushes.
My understanding is that most guns in Arkansas are unregistered, and the background check is a joke and a way of trying to avoid the real issue of gun inundation in Arkansas. Instead of trying to get more guns in our society, we need to try to locate all the unregistered guns. Arkansas is becoming a gun society and an unsafe place to live.
CARROLL RAST
Camden
Arrogance astounds
Barbara Dunn's letter in Sunday's paper was a classic example of why 74 million of us voted against the Democrats in the last election. The overweening arrogance and desire to silence anyone with a different opinion are the defining characteristics of the modern Democratic Party. I believe they are the party of Third World oligarchy very similar in actions to the Chinese Communist Party.
JOE CROMWELL
White Hall