Time for U.S. to get out of debt

To the editor:

Every day it seems like I am reading articles on Nevada’s high foreclosure rate, the crisis of subprime loans or the credit crunch.

We have become a nation whose citizens and governments live in debt, and no one is willing to admit that it is time to change. If we would be more responsible and stop feeling naturally entitled to big houses that we cannot afford, fancy cars we don’t need, etc., the financial crisis that the nation is facing would not be an issue.

My husband and I currently live in a modest apartment and are saving for our house so that one day our mortgage payment will not exceed 30 percent of our income. He makes a good salary (well above the median salary here in Nevada), but rather than haphazardly spend it all we are both investing in our higher education and retirement.

Both of us drive older cars and we don’t run up credit card debt. We still have fun going on vacations or out on the town, but that fun is always prepaid or budgeted. We would love to have a bigger home for our son and nicer stuff, but we understand that you cannot get something for nothing — it must be earned.

If as Americans we would stop looking to make an easy dollar and start acting sensibly, buying only what we could afford, amazing things would happen. Inflation would begin to go down. Housing prices would fall to levels that are affordable. People would not be so dependent upon Social Security and government handouts. And we would become a wealthier and stronger nation.

Francisca Hakes

LAS VEGAS

Turn out the lights

To the editor:

Sen. Harry Reid has been quoted as saying he would use “every means at his disposal” to block plans to build three coal-fired power plants at the Ely Energy Center in Nevada.

Perhaps the senator is unaware that Nevada imports 50 percent of its annual consumption of 31 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. This energy comes from power companies as far away as the Pacific Northwest. Many of these utilities also face opposition to new coal-fired plants from people like Sen. Reid, and they may soon find they no longer have a surplus to sell to Nevada.

The senator’s solution is solar, geothermal and wind. True, Nevada has good potential for solar power and it has some geothermal resources. In fact, Nevada has one of the world’s largest solar projects due to come on line this year — the 64 megawatt Solar One built by Acciona SA at a cost of $250 million. The state has set a target for renewables of 20 percent of Nevada’s energy use by 2015. If only half of this renewable energy comes from solar power, it would require be the equivalent of 30 Solar One facilities at a cost of $7.5 billion.

And Nevada would still be heavily dependent on imports, even if the 2,500 megawatts of coal-fired plants at the Ely Energy Center are built. Nevada might well become the first state to run out of electricity because politicians like Sen. Reid are up in arms about global warming. They would shut down the nation’s power systems because a United Nations panel has said that the Earth’s temperature has gone up 0.76 degrees Celsius in 120 years. In fact, the records for Nevada show the mean annual temperature is no higher than it was in the 1880s and has swung back and forth over a range of 3 degrees Celsius since then.

William T. Smith

MCLEAN, VA.

School variances

To the editor:

Your Monday story about the girl who has to attend a different high school than her sisters (“School zoning splits up sister act”) is an example of the consequences of school overcrowding. I can understand why the Clark County School District has to keep zoning variances to a minimum.

However, I don’t understand why children of school district employees can be given a variance to attend the school where their mother or father works. This seems to be another example of government workers having benefits that the private sector doesn’t have.

Ron Gearhart

LAS VEGAS

Dumb, dumb, dumb

To the editor:

Good old O.J. Simpson. Tall, dark, handsome and as dumb as a box of rocks. I guess some people just don’t learn.

Lauriebeth Asadoor

MONROVIA, CALIF.