Letters for May 14, 2008

May 14, 2008 07:21 am

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Board shows lack of respect

I read the article about the Otsego County Board meeting of May 7 in disbelief. The disclosure that Jenny Gliha sent a memo to the department heads instructing them to prohibit employees from taking their breaks at 10 a.m. to prevent them from attending the board meeting was appalling! Ms. Gliha stated that she was advised to send the memo by Mr. John Corcorran, the county's labor negotiator.

I wonder how much the county board paid Mr. Corcorran for this advice. It is apparent the board is more interested in paying a high-priced attorney than negotiating with the CSEA workers for a fair wage and benefit plan.

Furthermore, the employees who Ms. Gliha wanted to prevent from attending the board meeting are Otsego County residents who pay taxes and have the same right as any other resident to attend these meetings.

While the board was meeting on Wednesday, the CSEA member employees were working, doing the county's business, as we do every workday. Our paychecks are lower than they were two years ago. Health insurance premiums have had double-digit increases each of the past two years, while our salaries have remained the same. The board's lack of respect for the workers is evident by its failure to offer a fair wage scale and affordable health insurance. We are the lowest paid county employees in the state!

Let the elected representatives, not Mr. Corcorran, speak for the county. Mr. Corcorran, who is not a county resident, is the only one who is benefiting (financially) from the stalemate that the union and board find themselves in. I think that it is time that both the board and the CSEA union stop posturing and sit down together to have legitimate discussions about getting a fair contract in place. Everyone will benefit.

Mavis Lindstadt

Cooperstown

High cost of food not from profit

Deborah Tarrow's letter shows a lack of economics and history on her part. She decries making profit off the human need for food. Yet in Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," he states:

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but for their regard to their self interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love and never talk to them of our necessities but to their advantages."

Free markets work because Smith's observation provides the greatest social outcome. The greatest social good is achieved when individuals pursue their own self-interest.

Tarrow's goody, goody feel-good theory that when Americans finally object to people making profit off need for food there will be enough for everyone has been tried before by Stalin in Soviet Russia, and it led to literally millions of Russians starving when he collectivized farms and took the profit and incentive away from peasants.

The reason for the increases in food prices can be traced to other factors than the profit motive. The insane policy of using corn for ethanol production is one of them. To divert millions of acres of corn from food production to a vain attempt to reduce the importation of foreign oil is ill-advised. Of course there will be less food if a significant amount of farm land is used for ethanol.

Another factor is the Federal Reserve's attempt to stem the housing crisis by reducing interest rates and keeping them low for such a long time. This has resulted in the weakening of the dollar with the resultant inflation and high commodity prices, including oil and food. For these reasons, and not the profit motive, we have the specter of inflation, recession and high food and gas prices.

Robert C. Beckman

Otego

Speeders put kids in danger

Apparently, there is no speed limit in the hamlet of Andes! You may drive as fast as you'd like! And better yet, when the school buses are picking up children at 7:45 in the morning, it's OK to come down Palmer Hill at 47 mph and be a state trooper ... with no lights flashing!

The speed checkpoint that has sat on the road uselessly in recent weeks is for entertainment purposes only. But it is very decorative. Its bright lights shine as a hint you're going too fast when it registers anything above 30 mph.

In addition, it's just fine if you pass the school bus with its red lights flashing and already at a complete stop! Boy, I really hope that lady in such a hurry was ticketed and learned a small lesson.

The best part is you may drive much faster than the posted 20 mph in front of the school where the children are ... and be a state trooper with no lights flashing!

I wrote in a few months ago about this problem. Granted, a couple of state troopers have patrolled the area for a very short time. They stopped many, many speeders and did not issue many, many tickets. Apparently, (and I heard this through the grapevine). our town officials have asked the troopers to cut back on the number of tickets they issue. It was becoming too much! Huh?

If this is true, how would you feel if your child or grandchild were to be hit by some idiot flying through in a hurry to get some place they go every day and know what time they should've been there and how long it should take to get there.

Slow down.

Melissa Wright

Andes

Property owners' rights being lost

As a supporter of property owners' rights, we need government out of our business. These do-gooders want us to pay them to impose their will, because they think they know what's good for us, at the expense of common sense.

We need to resist any attempts of so-called code enforcers and ordinance makers to call our property junkyards. I'm a working stiff, and my scrap is my lifestyle choice. How do you like that, liberals?

Matthew Levene

Worcester