Many factors are at work in our ailing economy

Ed Jones, Mesquite

Monday, Dec. 6, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Regarding John Joines’ Dec. 26 letter to the editor, headlined “Blame is to be shared for job losses”:

The so-called good deals in Las Vegas have virtually disappeared because of high costs (caused by unions). We are no longer competitive in the marketplace. Additionally, our workers today have the attitude that the world owes them a living.

Meanwhile, our society has begun to tolerate almost anything, including special interests who buy our politicians.

Furthermore, our country is being run by big businesses that don’t care what happens to the working class. American citizens are being stripped of their power to retaliate against these people. Big businesses are getting stronger because they can make huge profits and pay very little taxes.

As Mr. Joines says, if they can’t produce products here and make a profit, then they build it in foreign countries with cheap labor. It’s called NAFTA. (We need to raise the foreign import tariff.)

We have the greatest country in the world but don’t know how to make changes that will get us back on track.

We need to change our tax system to make it fair for everyone (flat rate tax).