Giving big bucks to a very rich company
To the editor:
Our governor says Apple will create jobs in the state of Nevada, so we are giving the company $89 million in tax breaks to build operations in Reno and Sparks.
Apple has more than $100 billion in the bank and it makes $1 billion every week. Yet, Nevada, with budget problems, is giving a very rich company money to move to our state.
The president says the rich should pay their fair share in taxes. Mitt Romney says the rich create the jobs. This proves both men are correct. The rich don't pay their fair share in taxes, and they do create jobs.
Cary de Grosa
Las Vegas
Free will
To the editor:
In regard to the Chick-fil-A controversy:
God gave each and every one of us "free will." It is our own choice if we decide to serve God and obey him. The Apostle Peter hit the crux of this matter right on the head when he asked the Pharisees if it was right to hearken unto God or to hearken unto man and told them to be the judge.
If members of the family that owns the Chick-fil-A food chain choose of their free will to profess and believe in God's will that a marriage be between a man and a woman, it is their inviolate right.
On the other hand, if anyone chooses to ignore the will of God and profess that it is the right of a man to marry a man or a woman to marry a woman, that also is their inviolate right. God will judge.
It is my free-will belief that marriage is as God established it: between man and woman - and no variation. If this is offensive to you and you are one of those up in arms over Chick-fil-A's stand on this matter, I'll make you a deal. You stay away from Chick-fil-A, I'll stay away from Krave - and we'll all be happy.
Frank W. Thompson
Henderson
Nice man
To the editor:
In response to Steve Sebelius' Sunday column on the apology by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for stating that Sheldon Adelson encouraged prostitution in his casinos:
Mr. Sebelius believes that no apology was due. I feel obligated to respond.
Mr. Adelson is one of the biggest employers in Nevada, providing a good livelihood to many thousands of his employees. He is a patriot, having served his country in uniform, while many of his detractors, including President Obama, have not. He brings in yearly 80 servicemen for free R&R in his hotels.
He is a major donor in support of education in our community. His wife, Miriam, has set up several nonprofit drug rehabilitation clinics around the world, including one in Las Vegas, supported by the Adelsons. I can go on and on.
So what did Mr. Sebelius find wrong with Mr. Adelson? Years ago he had a disagreement with his temple, that he had a confrontation with the Culinary union about their protests - Mr. Sebelius did not mention that at that time Mr. Adelson's life was threatened and his house was defaced with anti-Semitic comments - and that there were different, as of now unfounded, allegations by some fired employees.
Mr. Adelson is a self-made man. Everything he has, he earned. He is an unbelievable genius in business - and that is why he is wealthy. But he is a very generous and kind person who is one of the main pillars of our local economy.
Mr. Sebelius, I state that Mr. Adelson is very nice. There is plenty to prove the case.
Joseph Shalev
Henderson
Job numbers
To the editor:
Having read both articles in Saturday's Review-Journal concerning the number of new jobs created in July, I was confused as to how all those new jobs were created, yet the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points. The articles did not clarify how this could happen.
I read the U.S. Department of Labor report detailing these numbers, and the report states that the unemployment rate increased, but the number of people unemployed remained unchanged at 12.8 million. The only way the nation's unemployment rate can increase by 0.1 percentage points, when the number of unemployed people stays the same, is to remove about 150,000 people from the total available workforce.
The report also states that 165,000 new jobs were created. Yet the number of unemployed people did not go down. Thus the 165,000 people in these new jobs must be new people added to the workforce.
The only way I can reconcile the number of new jobs with the increased unemployment rate is if there was a reduction in our total workforce from June to July of about 315,000 people. I guess that means 315,000 people either died, retired, moved out of the country or decided stop looking for work.
I'm not an economist and I don't know what the implications are of a shrinking workforce. But I fail to see how anyone, especially tax-reliant politicians, can see anything positive in these numbers.
Jim Brown
North Las Vegas
