C-17 plant offers more than jobs

Re: Michael Hiltzik’s business column “Billions are spent to defend 5,000 jobs,” Oct. 8:

Next time we need an airplane or a submarine, should we simply ring up Wal-Mart and ask them how much time is required to order one from China? This is more about maintaining a strategic capability than jobs. Jobs come and go, but complex assembly lines mostly go, and we won’t know what we lost until they’re gone.

Ira Lee Newlander

Los Angeles ::

Just a few comments about the article on the C-17 plant in Long Beach.

I work at that plant and have for the last 21 years. I find it irrational to strike out at a local company that has provided industrial manufacturing jobs to L.A. County and the surrounding region.

During my time here on the C-17 I have earned two master’s degrees. I have paid untold thousands of dollars into the federal, state, county and city coffers in the form of taxes. I have purchased a home in L.A. County. I purchased all my cars in L.A. County. I go to church in L.A. County. I raised two children in L.A. County. They participated in youth sports through the local parks. We participated in high school sports.

Boeing Co. contributes large sums of money to the education systems here in L.A. County through the Boeing Foundation and other grants. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been given to Cal Sate Long Beach and Long Beach city schools. What would L.A. County look like without these contributions to the community?

I find it very inappropriate to shoot the local goose laying the very big tax egg.

Kevin Davidson

Lakewood