Letters to the editor 2/17/09

Brilliant " this is what we need in Washington

Highest kudos to Keith Berry for his insightful letter (Opinion; Sunday, Feb. 8). Mr. Berry nails it down when he opines that the so-called "stimulus package" will do little to create new jobs.

Rather, it would be far more effective to lower corporate taxes on U.S. companies that move their manufacturing operations back to the United States, and raise corporate taxes on U.S. companies that continue to manufacture goods overseas.

Brilliant. Love it. Send Mr. Berry to Washington.

DON CONWAY

Washoe Valley

Laws of supply and demand out of whack

I just dropped off my granddaughter at school and am a bit more than upset. Anger might be a better description.

As I was taking my granddaughter to school I passed a local gas station. And not to my surprise, regular unleaded had gone up 4 cents from the previous day. This is in conjunction with gas going up 11 cents a few days earlier. This morning as I was having coffee and reading the Nevada Appeal I noticed that a barrel of crude oil had again dropped below $40 a barrel. This is where I am a bit puzzled.

In our youth as we go through school we are taught the basics of economics. Supply and demand is certainly a basic for any economy. Or so I had thought. As the demand for fuel has gone down, the supply has increased worldwide. In effect crude is sitting in warehouses. Common economic sense would tell you that the price of fuel would go down. Yet the opposite has happened.

This draws me to the conclusion that corporate greed overrides all and everything, including basic economics. It is manipulation at its best or, for a better word, its worst.

Certainly as our economy begins a recovery, the demand for fuel will increase.

But I shudder at the thought of what will happen with the price of gas as the powers that be in the oil industry once again manipulate the cost for nothing more than their own greed and lavish salaries.

This would certainly stall or reverse any progress or recovery we had hoped for.

ROBERT F. CLEMENTS

Dayton

Arts funding adds to quality of Carson life

I was dismayed that the Nevada Appeal considered the National Endowment for the Arts inclusion in the federal stimulus package as a "wish" item in your editorial dated Feb. 6. Carson City is home to a remarkable breadth of arts and cultural organizations and businesses " from the Brewery Arts Center and the Capital City Arts Initiative to the Carson City Symphony and Nevada Hispanic Services.

It is also home to a growing number of artist-entrepreneurs who own homes, buy and sell goods and services and pay taxes. Just last year, 24 arts organizations, schools, educators and artists in the Capital City received 29 grants from the Nevada Arts Council for a total of $77,192.

This public funding was matched many times over, and supported festivals, cultural programs and arts enrichment activities for schools " creating jobs, attracting tourists and providing substantial dollars to Carson City's economic base.

Guess where nearly half of the Arts Council Grants Program comes from? The National Endowment for the Arts.

That federal funding flows right through the Nevada Arts Council into Carson City's creative industry. A business sector that not only adds to the region's commerce, but provides the quality of life for which Carson City prides itself.

Isn't it time that the Fourth Estate recognizes that the arts work for Nevada?

SUSAN BOSKOFF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

NEVADA ARTS COUNCIL

Reno