Economy solutions get lost in arguing
When I was a college student in 1964, the annual tuition was about $600 per year. That represented 480 hours of work at $1.25 an hour, the minimum wage earned from a part-time job. By working 15 to 20 hours a week, I paid tuition and graduated debt-free.
Fast-forward to 2013. Annual tuition at that same school is $24,000 per year. If I were now a student earning the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, I would have to work over 63 hours a week to cover tuition. Since that would be virtually impossible, I would have to take out loans.
It’s no wonder graduates are saddled with debt these days. Is the minimum wage too low? Is college tuition too high? Obviously, the relationship of minimum wage to the overall economy is fraught with inequities. Instead of intelligent debate, we get nothing but producers, consumers and politicians arguing their own hidebound interests. We’re all losing in a debt-ridden economy out of kilter from top to bottom with everybody shouting at everyone else. Socialist dreams have become nightmares.
BOB MILLER, Signal Mountain
Cook’s police incident column off-base
There is the right way and the wrong to handle violence. David Cook, in his typical way of showing his self-righteous indignation, felt the need to point out the obvious. Of course police are trained to control violent criminals with a certain amount of restraint. Usually, when a situation spins out of control there are serious consequences. In this case, a criminal was seriously injured and the officers were fired. However, this does not rise to the level of critiquing the police department as a whole. Cook correctly points out how they are trained. In fact, he actually attempted to describe the outdated Use of Force Continuum, which was designed to have a ready and measured response to any act of violence. Unfortunately, things don’t always work out like they are supposed to. Imagine if these officers had followed Cooks “Untouchables” reference and shot the knife wielder?