Being greedy a way to exploit ex-workers

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Being greedy a way to exploit ex-workers

Just the other day, I was thinking that if I were running a very large company (that my former employees built for me, but now were too old to produce anymore, so they are no longer of use to me), I’d let them retire, many with a meager pension and health care benefits — but now I think that they have been collecting too long.

I know I have billions in my pension fund. But greedy as I am, I want to hoard it. By jove, I think I’ve got it. I’ll take away their health care benefits, which they were told was part of their retirement package.

Yes, that’s it. Now if they cannot afford doctor visits or medicine — not my problem anymore. They can cut back on their groceries if need be, and eventually the lack of goods and medicine will cut down the amount of the pension payout.

Like I said, they built this company with blood, sweat and even their lives. But what good are they to me now? Does anyone else out there seem to think that this is fair?

On, one more thing, I would offer them each $1,000 to help offset the new cost of health insurance and drug costs. But I can stop that extra help at my discretion.

Promises are meant to be broken, right?

Now with the average pensioner spending $30 to $50 more out of pocket each week, less money for charitable donations, another savings in my matching gift foundation.

Am I good or what?

John A. Czarnecki Jr.

Glenville

Trump and Cruz not fit to lead our country

Is anyone surprised that Trump has appeared on Fox News more than any other candidate? Trump and Fox News are joined at the hip, as both tell fictional stories on a regular basis.

To me, Trump is the perfect Republican and has all the attributes associated with the doctrine of the party. Hate has always been part of the Republican mantra and stretching the truth is something they do with straight faces.

Trump’s nearest adversary, Ted Cruz, is a good example of a stone thrower who lives in a glass house. Born in Canada to a Cuban father and an American mother, I fail to see how he can even run for president. Wasn’t it Cruz who along with Trump who complained that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States?

Even when it was proven that our president was born in the United States, Cruz and Trump still pounded on their drums. So here we are getting ready to elect another president, and the best Republican candidate has left the race. Lindsey Graham was someone who called things as they were and his honesty couldn’t be questioned. He also served our country before becoming an elected official, and he knows the perils of war.

Trump did as many privileged did and used deferments rather than serve our nation. Now he wants to show what a tough guy he is and has no problem with sending others once again to war. Cruz, who also never served, had the audacity to slander two war heroes, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, and is also ready to send your children and grandchildren to war.

America doesn’t need another war, and we surely don’t need Trump or Cruz. To Republicans, an immigrant is anyone that doesn’t fit their corner of the Earth. Our country is one made from immigrants and for this we should be thankful. Our forefathers would be appalled by the fear mongering being tossed about by draft dodgers like Trump and others who would thrive on the blood of those they would put in harm’s way. I am not ready to have my grandchildren sacrificed, are you? May God bless America.

Gary Philip Guido

Rotterdam

Restructure the state Senate at convention

If New York state has a constitutional convention soon, I have a proposal which, needless to say, would never get out of committee in the state Legislature.

Look at the U.S. Senate. You will see that each state has two senators to ensure that each state is given the same protection against big-population states as seen in the House of Representatives.

New York state does not provide the same protection. Assemblymen are gleaned from every 150,000 inhabitants. State senators represent 300,000, and we have 62 of them. This means both chambers are represented more or less by the same density quotient, thus leaving lightly populated counties poorly represented.

For instance, New York City — along with Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties — have 27 state senators and thus, have more power to legislate for their needs.

To even the playing field, I suggest a change to one state senator for each of the 62 counties. Presently, the 45th District sees Clinton, Essex, Franklin and Hamilton counties sharing one state senator.

Critics would scoff, “One senator from Hamilton County? How absurd.”

Perhaps. But this would give such counties a voice in the proceedings. Generally, these rural counties are conservative and Republican, which do not benefit from the largess Albany hands out. They don’t get billion dollar bridges across the Hudson; they barely get money to repair their old bridges.

Such a change could also diffuse rumblings about creating a new state — Upstate — which would reflect its agricultural values.

Some would say, “Those little counties don’t count; numbers do.” In that case, maybe Vermont and Alaska don’t count and should be stripped of their senators. As it is, each is poorly represented in the House just as the Adirondacks and the Southern Tier are poorly heard in Albany.

For the obscure counties, what is at stake is state mandates, which are said to cost counties half of their budgets, thus, resulting in higher local property taxes. Medicare and Medicaid demand much of this.

Demographically, such counties have a disproportionately high percentage of the elderly and the poor. An all-county state Senate might be able to send those bills back to Albany and let it figure out how to pay for them.

At least, equal representation might be able to rein in the expenditures of the downstate populist Assembly, if not the governors who often come from the same urban areas. And, who knows, it might help to solve the corrupt atmosphere in Albany.

In any event, this is the kind of proposal a constitutional convention might debate. I’m sure there will be greater issues on the agenda.

One such idea will inevitably be debated and which would eliminate the above change — in unicameral Legislature. An all-Assembly with no higher body. Some states use this form of government. Upstate would frown on it. But that’s how democracy works — thrashing out things fairly in public and accepting the will of the majority.

David Childs

Johnstown

How about we try to be more considerate

This may seem trivial with all the troubles in the world, but basic human decency starts at home, in our communities.

In late November, we made a trip over to Bob’s trees in Galway, which is a wonderful establishment and a tradition for us, to pick out a Christmas tree.

After spending a Sunday afternoon hiking through the fields, we found “the tree” — the one to lovingly decorate and center our holiday around. We “tagged” the tree by tying on long purple ribbons, which entrusted it to the honor system used at tree farms. We planned to come back the following weekend with my children to cut down and drag the tree out, another tradition.

When we arrived to get the tree, we found it had been cut down and taken, along with our Christmas spirit.

It wasn’t as much a taken tree as it was the thought that somebody could just walk in and cut down a tree that was obviously chosen for somebody else’s celebration.

With the following weekends booked, and dark coming soon after work, we almost were without a tree. At the last minute, we grabbed a pre-cut tree at a roadside stand. The tree was nice, but did not have the same meaning as our chosen one.

Just a small lesson to think about how your actions, large and small, affect others. Please be considerate and thoughtful to your fellow human beings. It has to start somewhere.

Terri Horan

Scotia

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Categories: Letters to the Editor