Apples and oranges on U.S. jobs

In response to your Saturday editorial regarding the manufacturing sector and government employment:

Comparing government employment to manufacturing is complete nonsense; they have nothing to do with one another. Companies such as Walmart and Amazon manufacture next to nothing but sell hundreds of billions of dollars worth of merchandise. The macro trend — the transition from a manufacturing economy to a service-based high-tech economy — has been in place for decades.

Millions of jobs that used to be done by people are now done by robots and several million jobs have been outsourced to other countries because of much cheaper labor costs. As labor costs rise overseas many of these jobs are starting to come back.

The current government work-force is about 6.9 percent of the population. This is the lowest number in decades. Typically it is between 7 percent and 7.5 percent in the modern era. On the federal side of the equation, there were 5.3 million federal workers in 1962 and there are 4.1 million workers today. Keep in mind our population has grown from 180 million in 1962 people to more than 320 million people today.

In terms of government workers not producing anything, I would argue a surgeon, plumber or architect who works for the government produces exactly the same thing as his private-sector counterpart.

Gerry Hageman

Las Vegas

Preaching division

If you read Zach Linly’s Sunday commentary, “White people just don’t get racism,” and mentally transpose “black” for “white” — and vice versa — you have a great draft for a white supremacist manifesto. His suggestion that “black people” should disengage with “white America” sounds like segregation to me.

Rick Houle

Las Vegas

All for one

I read with interest the Monday Review-Journal article, “City, county try to ease tensions.” While I appreciate the desires of the City Council and County Commission for a “kumbaya” agreement, nothing to date has produced any results.

Meanwhile, we and other property owners in the northwest, who have been forcibly annexed into the city over the past few years, are paying property taxes 20 percent higher due to the annexations. For these additional taxes, we get nothing — no additional (or better) fire, police or utility services.

When my husband and I attended an informational meeting prior to our property being annexed, we were told that there was nothing we could do about it, just grin and pay for it. When we asked what additional services we would receive for the additional taxes, the only thing the city officials could come up with was “you will get your streets cleaned.” That was false, given we live in a gated community with private streets.

We do get to vote for mayor and our City Council representative, so we know where our votes are not going. Perhaps those of us who have either been annexed or are threatened with annexation should consider strongly the views of those running in the next elections and their positions on these forcible annexations.

Phyllis Torrey

Las Vegas

Candidate projection

Trying to walk back her “basket of deplorables” comment about Donald Trump supporters, Hillary Clinton talks about how the Trump campaign is based on “paranoia and prejudice.” Last month, Harry Reid commented that there aren’t enough uneducated white male voters to beat Hillary Clinton in Nevada.

There is a psychological phenomenon known as “projection.” Paranoia? Hillary Clinton is the one who talks about “the vast right wing conspiracy.” Prejudice? It is obvious from Sen. Reid’s comments that he has a prejudice against white men, and Hillary Clinton’s prejudice is probably based on her husband’s marital and extra-marital conduct.

Are the white males uneducated? In my case, educated enough to be at early voting on Oct. 22. Then, I can do my bit to send Hillary Clinton to the ash heap of history. Harry Reid is smart enough to go on his own.

Richard C. Sipan

North Las Vegas