Valued employees
Valued employees
Chris Tamm (Your Views, Sept. 16) stated twice in his letter to the editor that “government produces nothing — zero goods.”
Are goods the only things that we value? Our government employs teachers, custodians, nurses, doctors, other health care workers, police, firefighters, road crews, lifeguards, the military, air-traffic controllers. Are these people less valuable than manufacturers?
Are consumer products the only things we value?
Margaret Drake
Volcano
Government waste
I agree with Chris Tamm’s letter to the editor (Your Views, Sept. 16) regarding the size of government. It’s just too big and inefficient. And I say that as a former government employee from Honolulu.
Government definitely has a role and value, but its purpose should be limited to public safety, infrastructure, health care and education.
But instead it’s become just a giant bag of cash for politicians and bureaucrats to squander and waste. Just look at this county and all the insanity in the mayor’s office. Shameful but perfect example.
Someday, maybe people will wake up and demand more from their tax money. Because it really is ours.
A. Yamamoto
Hilo
Crime, punishment
It’s really pretty simple. The guy who took Kamehameha’s spear should fix it. End of story.
(Mahalo, police.)
Fred Fogel
Volcano
‘Can’t do state’
In recent testimony to the Public Utilities Commission regarding establishing an electric co-op on the Big Island, the NextEra adviser claims that co-ops and municipal utilities are not cost-effective.
They may not be cost-effective for Wall Street-owned utilities who rip off the Hawaiian consumer and government with exorbitant rates, but they are cost-effective in Iceland where a state-owned utility bills customers about 3 cents per kilowatt-hour for geothermal-produced electricity compared with more than 40 cents per kwh in Hilo.
Why do our politicians protect price gougers like HELCO and NextEra with their phony advisers and local stooges instead of taking action to reduce the cost of essential electric power by using our natural resources?
Is Hawaii really the “can’t do state” run by lawyer politicians feathering their own nests instead of representing the people?
Allan Dougherty
Hilo