Auto Quotas

The article (Editorial Pages, Feb. 7), “Quotas; the Unlegislated Auto Tax,” by Doreen L. Brown made great gestures on behalf of the consumers for cheaper cars from Japan, but she failed to explain that it really does not help our country in the long run.

Our huge deficit of nearly $230 billion is fanned by the fires of a trade deficit of more than $125 billion. Labor Department statistics indicate that for every job lost to imports results in a direct loss in taxes that would pay to overcome the deficit problem.

Unfortunately, in America we are continually subjected to the seller’s market and when his products have been made by countries whose standards are either lower or different than ours the consumers and workers both lose.

Certainly healthy trade should continue with any country that is willing to be fair, but in this case the Japanese aren’t paying for their own defense while still enjoying a 2.5% unemployment against ours being over 7.5%.

MILFORD C. WALKER

West Covina