Friday, September 3, 2010

The numbers show why some need food stamps

Looking over a comment in the Citizens' Voice asking why a person working 40 hours a week gets to get food stamps, at first I was incensed by this person with what appeared to be no kind of compassion in them at all. Then I decided it would be better to try to educate them in some island economics.

Here is the scenario: A single parent, working 40 hours a week for $9 an hour -- more than minimum wage, mind you. That's $18,720 a year. Let's say this person is one of the few who actually are awarded and receive child support from a non-custodial parent, say $300 per month.

The annual income is now $22,320. Affordable homes are near nonexistent. The one I run has 103 people on the waiting list. I have received over 15 calls just this week from people with Section 8 vouchers who cannot find anywhere to accept them. Nice, huh?

Anyway, so figure $1,500 per month for rent for a two-bedroom -- $18,000 a year -- leaving $4,320, minus $100 per month for electric (if frugal); $3,120 remains. Pay the water, that's $2,820 remaining to feed and clothe the parent and the two little ones -- and no extras like a ball and jacks anywhere.

I hope I have enlightened someone with this.

Karen Ortega

Key West

Work with Muslims to win war on terrorism

A recent letter to the editor, "Americans rightfully wary of NYC mosque" has got some history wrong. The author states that "perhaps Americans would be more considerate of a Muslim center near ground zero if the world's leading Muslims had been more active in denouncing Islamic extremism ... and specifically those jihadists on Sept. 11. ... This hasn't happened."

Yes, it did happen. According to Wikipedia, the leaders vehemently denouncing the 9/11 attacks included the presidents of Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Libya, Syria, Iran and Pakistan. Huge crowds attended candlelit vigils in Iran, and 60,000 spectators observed a minute's silence at Tehran football stadium.

The way to fight Muslim terrorists is to work with our Muslim partners. If, however, we ride this wave of anti-Muslim propaganda, we will lose the war on terrorism.

Stephen P. Dawkins

Key West

Let's find better way to elect our leaders

All institutions of government are constrained by evolutionary selective pressures which strongly favor incompetence. Every year, thousands of businesses go out of business. These businesses fail because they prove unable to effectively differentiate between advantageous practices and disadvantageous practices. Successful businesses select advantageous practices, which persuade customers' voluntarily patronage, furnishing financial support to the business.

The provision of voluntary financial support acts as a mechanism of natural selection favoring only those institutions which successfully differentiate between advantageous and disadvantageous practices. Removing this selective pressure from any institution, such as is the case for institutions coercing financial support from patrons by threat of incarceration for not paying "taxes," also removes the selective pressure that favors the survival of only those institutions possessing real world competence and does not induce the failure of institutions that do not possess real world competence.

Real world competence is defined here as those practices that actually prove efficacious and that the majority of people find valuable. Institutions that are not subject to such beneficial selective pressures, such as all institutions of government, accrue bad ideas and good ideas at their naturally occurring rate rather than at the rate induced by such a beneficial selective pressure which strongly favors good ideas.

Since there are a hundred bad ideas for every good idea, the only protection a government agency has against adopting disadvantageous practices are the mental faculties of its leadership. As evidenced in the number of failed businesses each year, even the best businessmen often fail because the mental faculties of even well- educated men prove nearly useless in predicting real world competence.

For each advantageous practice adopted by any government institution, many disadvantageous practices are accrued. Perhaps Thomas Paine already knew this when he said "government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." The answer lies not in eliminating taxes, but in a novel means of electing leadership. Our current method of election selects leaders who are good showmen, not good leaders.

Jerry Wickey

Key West