Playing games with employment statistics
In response to the Review-Journal’s Aug. 14 editorial, “Figures don’t lie, but …”:
I’d like to offer my analysis on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ relevant Nevada employment stats. Nevada’s labor force participation rate is 62.9 percent, the lowest on record. There are currently 800,000 Nevadans who choose not to participate in the labor force, meaning that (for whatever reason) they are neither employed nor willing to look for work.
Of course, the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate have a direct relationship. Thus, while the state’s unemployment rate has seemingly improved from its 2011 highs north of 13 percent, a good portion of the unemployment rate’s downward trend is attributable to large-scale emigration from the state’s labor force.
I encourage readers to review my full analysis available at www.npri.org/blog/detail/nevadas-labor-force-participation-rate-has-never-been-lower.
Daniel Honchariw
Las Vegas
The writer is a policy analyst with the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan, free-market think tank based in Las Vegas.
Coming and going
Donald Trump should frame the immigration issue like he does free trade.
Other nations must not abuse fair trade by illicitly damaging American commercial interests. So, too, with immigration.
Nations that send their immigrants to the United States must be required to equally allow U.S. citizens to emigrate. No immigration reciprocity for Americans, no welcome mat for foreigners.
Free trade, free migration both ways.
Immigration has become the importation of ideas and culture, not the assimilation of new people. The United States must have equal emigration rights of exporting our Judeo-Christian culture of liberty, equality, economic opportunity, constitutional rule of law and representative government. This means no immigration if the people of America do not have equal right of emigration to other countries, including the right to build churches and synagogues, openly preach of our culture and build American cultural centers.
This concept of immigration-emigration fairness makes so much sense to so many Americans that the liberals cannot denounce us as xenophobic racial bigots.
Art Rader
Las Vegas
Rolling rock
Donald Trump, like Sisyphus of Greek mythology, is known for his “self aggrandizing, craftiness, and deceitfulness. As punishment he was made to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back to the bottom again, repeating this action for an eternity.”
Thus Mr. Trump mimics Sisyphus as he takes one step forward, then gaffes, and then blames the media for his comments. He does so to avoid substantive issues. He does so to avoid the hard work of being prepared and presidential.
Mr. Trump’s punishment will be an embarrassing loss in the general election. He is already tempering his loss with rhetoric about a rigged system — a rigged system he never mentioned when he led the polls. Mr. Trump will be defeated by a less-than-perfect candidate and by the massive boulder he has been carrying around since birth — wealth, privilege and misogyny.
After his defeat, Mr. Trump will return to his business. Unfortunately, just like he has left a string of unpaid vendors in his wake, he will leave his absurd followers with a boulder of their own to carry forward.
Reginald England
Henderson
Shrinking revenues
I have seen countless articles in the Review-Journal touting more efficient cars and trucks, and also electric vehicles. Good. But you must also address how we are going to maintain the roads and bridges without the revenue from the gasoline tax.
Charles Gould
Las Vegas
