Let’s turn the tables on Strip handbillers
To the editor:
In response to Jane Ann Morrison’s Thursday column on Strip handbillers:
I have some possible solutions for the problems Ms. Morrison mentioned — i.e. the perennial handbillers and the smut they hand out, and the $581,000 county study to identify congestion on the Strip.
Both are an insult to the residents of Clark County.
First, the handbillers. Since they are allowed to harass and block us on the sidewalks, perhaps we need to form large flash mobs and block the entrances to the porn palaces that are being advertised.
Second, the county study boondoggle. Since I am retired (giving me the time), and since I am a former police officer (giving me experience in identifying problem areas), I volunteer to prepare a “congestion” report for the county at a cost of under $500. This will save taxpayers at least $580,500. The report will be typed on my PC and be under five pages. I will even make copies for all the commissioners.
For an additional $580,500, I will include pictures.
Ron Moers
Henderson
Getting jobbed
To the editor:
If the unemployment rate is dropping, why can’t you get a job?
A recent report on the state’s unemployment rate dropping to 12.3 percent contained the following contradictory tidbits, which pass almost without notice:
First, “while unemployment is falling, so are employment opportunities. State officials say about 6,500 unemployed workers gave up looking for work in February and dropped out of the labor force.”
Then, “Employment dropped in all Nevada’s private and government sectors except for mining, logging and hospitality. The total, seasonally adjusted employment number went down 12,800 in February.”
Gov. Brian Sandoval is quoted as saying, “The latest decline in our unemployment rate indicates our economic indicators are headed in the right direction.”
Really? We lost almost 13,000 jobs in one month and 6,500 people just gave up looking for a job. This is a sign we are headed in the right direction? Really?
What has economists and me truly worried is not the smoke and mirrors of a juiced unemployment rate. It’s the “labor force participation rate” that keeps economists up at night. The labor force participation rate is simply understood as the percentage of the population 16 or older who are employed or seeking employment. The labor force participation rate continues to fall and is now at a very low 63.8 percent.
This brings us back to the 6,500 Nevadans who gave up looking for a job. Where did they go? By merely excluding them, the government can accurately report a dropping unemployment rate, even though the number of people working and looking for work has actually decreased.
What economists look at is not the rate published in the newspaper (called the U3) but the broader measure called the U6. The U6 number includes all of the people in the U3 and adds those who want a job but aren’t looking and those working part-time who want full-time employment.
The official Nevada U6 unemployment rate is a whopping 22.1 percent. This means the Las Vegas unemployment rate is even higher. Add in our huge population of undocumented workers who never appeared on any government statistic in the first place and the unemployment rate starts to creep into the 30 percent range.
This is why the unemployment rate is dropping and no one has a job.
Joseph Scalia
Las Vegas
Back in time
To the editor:
So let me get this straight. Cliven Bundy has been running his cattle illegally in Gold Butte for 18 years and in violation of a federal court order for 14 years (“Range standoff smoldering,” Wednesday Review-Journal). During that time he has paid no grazing fees, thereby stealing that money from us.
And now he and his son are calling for a band of like-minded folk to form a gang of outlaws to fight the “revenooers.” And the new motto for these parts shall be: “Welcome to Nevada! Set your clocks back 100 years.”
Tony Barron
Mesquite