Fat-Cat Favoritism Sacrifices U.S. Workers

It’s good business for Nike to make shoes in Indonesia. It’s good business for RCA, the “Radio Corporation of America,” to make TVs in China. It’s good business for Ford to make parts and even whole cars in Mexico. The trouble is, when too many businesses do this kind of good business, it’s bad for our country. When too many Americans are laid off, who’s going to buy our products? Not the Indonesians, Chinese or Mexicans. They’ll make their own stuff with their own cheap labor.

Each business must strive to control costs and maximize returns. But when too many get too good at it, we have a recession. That’s why we need government regulation. Only the broad vision of a democratically elected government can see that the labor force is also the customer base.

Right now we need to support American businesses when they invest in America but put conditions on their foreign investments. Our steel industry is going bankrupt. Layoffs are piling up. How many more danger signs do we need? We should support our domestic industries and back off on free trade.

Douglas Marshall

Bell

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Re “Another Free Lunch for Fat Cats,” Opinion, Nov. 4: Does anyone notice a parallel between the way airline CEOs take the best of all worlds for themselves during hard times while cutting loose their hapless employees to somehow survive and the harsh treatment accorded the poor folks in Afghanistan by the Taliban? Now maybe that’s a bit of an unfair comparison; nevertheless, the comparison is there. Shame on Congress! It is ever so that the powers that be favor the rich and influential above the faceless masses. It’s another good reason to stay away from flying. I’ll be taking the train or auto in the future.

Sandra L. Lerner

Sherman Oaks