LETTERS: The harm of participation trophies

By now, I think we all have a little fatigue from over all the letters to the editor about the 2016 election and solar panels. So I am going to address something different.

Our country is soon going to be managed by folks who got all their trophies just by participation. Whether you won the game or not, you got a trophy because you showed up. This certainly takes away the glory from those who earned the title. The winner might even say, “Why did I work so hard? He got the same reward I did?”

I don’t know when this practice started, but it certainly wasn’t in my day or my children’s day. We worked for our trophies. Some of us worked really hard and only got second place, but that’s how it went.

Perhaps the reason for all of this is that there is money in having everyone get a trophy, If you are the trophy dealer, better to sell 500 to an organization, so that everyone gets one, instead of selling just a few to those who fared best.

While participation trophies certainly put a smile on children’s faces, they don’t teach those children the benefits of hard work

Shirley O’Leary

Henderson

Trump’s flip-flopping

I don’t understand why the media, especially pundits at major news networks such as CNN and Fox News, will not call out Donald Trump for what he is: a flip-flopper. One day, he holds one opinion, the next day, he holds an entirely different opinion on the same issue.

You can’t just change your views every single day to pander toward whatever gets you the most votes. Yet time and again, no one calls him out on this. In previous elections, candidates wouldn’t even be around, never mind leading, when they flip-flop on opinions. It’s time for Mr. Trump to be held accountable on this matter.

Further, it would be nice to watch a Republican debate where the moderators keep Mr. Trump in line, so that for once, it’s not a constant interruption battle.

Kyle Styck

Las Vegas

Government grants

Regarding Michael O. Kreps’ letter (“Subsidizing billionaires,” Feb. 24 Review-Journal), he claims that grants made to save Nevada jobs are designed to line the pockets of Elon Musk. The truth is that NV Energy (owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.) was allowed to change its policies, primarily on net metering, thereby making rooftop solar less desirable. By crying loud enough, the utility was given the right to jeopardize an industry and its customers, to protect the company’s profits.

As for criticising tax incentives for the Tesla battery plant near Reno, is it better to leave all that land vacant, likely producing no revenue, or have an upstart business with sound finances come in and hire taxpaying, goods-purchasing employees, plus all the support businesses that Tesla would bring to the area?

If people really want a bone to pick. they should recall the federal government anteing up more than $150 million to LG Chem, a South Korean company, to build and staff a facility in Holland, Mich., to make batteries, mainly for the Chevy Volt. For years, the plant never shipped a battery, with LG instead continuing to make the batteries in South Korea.

The Holland facility reopened in August 2013 for a short period, only to be closed by the EPA, It finally reopened and allegedly now employs 300 people making batteries. The cash giveaway to LG followed the federal bailout of General Motors and other auto companies, in which taxpayers lost between $11 billion and $16 billion, depending on whom you believe.

Mr. Kreps and others cannot blame Republicans for these cash giveaways.

Robert Latchford

Henderson