Letters: Proposed U.S. economic solution gets an F

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Proposed economicsolution gets an F

Re: “America needs a refresher class on economics” (Page A6, Jan. 3).

Aine Seitz McCarthy’s column clearly demonstrates how off-base liberal professors can be when looking at real-world economic factors.

For example, it is naively easy to look at tax cuts strictly from a revenue reduction standpoint without accounting for the economic growth they stimulate. The Republican corporate tax cut moved the American statutory rate from the highest in the world to a mid-range among developed countries. More than $1 trillion was repatriated from foreign banks and the economy boomed. Since 2019, federal revenues have grown by more than 36%.

Professor McCarthy’s economic solutions are to spend more tax dollars, a recipe for further inflation.

While he’s correct that tariffs will impact prices, most market analysts assume they are the “big stick” tactic to negotiate trade concessions.

Henry RissierHollister

Parking enforcementis critical S.J. service

About a year ago, San Jose ended its “on-demand” parking enforcement and has since required all parking problems be submitted via their 311 app and violations would be addressed over the next 2-3 weeks.

This has been an unmitigated disaster. In my neighborhood, fire hydrants are blocked on a near nightly basis. “No Parking” signs and red zones are ignored. Disabled parking spaces are occupied by cars not authorized to use them. Cars are regularly double-parking and blocking bike lanes.

If San Jose can’t provide basic services like parking enforcement in a timely manner, something is seriously wrong with our leadership.

Jim WissickSan Jose

Conditions in Gaza arean outrage to humanity

Re: “Health care workers hold ‘pop up clinic’ at Stanford to protest war” (Page B1, Jan. 7).

Thank you for covering the Jan. 6 protest of the genocide in Gaza led by Stanford health care workers. After over a year of watching the horror of Israel’s inhumane destruction of Gazan lives and culture, anyone with a conscience will recognize the sickness and exhaustion the protesters quoted in the article describe.

It is inspiring that even after this soul-crushing year, these health care workers refuse to give up and allow the bombing of schools and hospitals and the abduction and murder of health care workers to become our new normal.

I note that the Kamal Adwan Pop-up Clinic at Stanford is named for the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which prior to its destruction by Israeli forces last month, was the last functioning hospital in north Gaza. The population of North Gaza now faces starvation, ongoing bombardment, and intense cold with no access to health care.

Alice RobinsonRedwood City

Pop-up protest showscommunity’s anguish

Re: “Health care workers hold ‘pop up clinic’ at Stanford to protest war” (Page B1, Jan. 7).

Thanks to the Mercury News and reporter Caelyn Pender for your detailed, thorough article on the pop-up “Sick from Genocide” clinic at Stanford. Thanks also to the health care workers who shared their anguish, fear and anger over the 15 months of mass death that Israel and the United States have unleashed against the people of Gaza.

So many of us share the health care workers’ agony. We see hospitals, schools and apartment buildings bombed; doctors, nurses, journalists and aid workers killed; children shot and starved while freezing in the winter rain. Our tax money and, for Jews like myself, our very identity is being weaponized to carry out this slaughter.

Special thanks to the Mercury News and Pender for not quoting Israel defenders calling “Sick from Genocide” antisemitic. After 15 months of mass murder, protesting is not anti-Jewish. It is our only medicine against despair.

David SperoSan Francisco

Four more years ofTrump may undo U.S.

I don’t know how this country will survive the next four years of the Trump administration or if we will recognize the country that once was.

Donald Trump has vowed to claim Greenland and the Panama Canal using economic sanctions and military force if necessary, annex Canada, rename the Gulf of Mexico and reinstate offshore drilling. He will enforce mass deportations, eliminating safe zones of schools and churches. I wish I could trust the common sense of Congress to police these absurdities, but they are captives of Trump fearing for their own political futures, lemmings unable to separate from the pack.

This said, what is our recourse to right this sinking ship of democracy?

Claudia ParkerSan Jose

Early capitulationswill embolden Trump

Re: “McDonald’s to end diversity goals” (Page C7, Jan. 7).

Today we saw three examples of “anticipatory obedience.”

In Timothy Snyder’s excellent “On Tyranny,” the first of his 20 terse admonitions is “Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”

Last week, without being asked, Mark Zuckerberg announced the removal of fact-checking from Facebook; the vice chairman of the Fed, Michael Barr, said he would step down in advance of Trump’s arrival; and McDonald’s has meekly withdrawn from its attempts to bring diversity to its ranks.

Trump 2.0 arrives with a team emboldened by experience and prepared with an agenda. Defeatism or capitulation by the rest of us is the last thing that is needed at this point.

James BangsundSan Jose