LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Don’t raise wage, raise skill levels
11/25/2013There appears to be a push toward raising the minimum wage (“Schauer calls for Mich. hike in minimum wage to $9.25,” Nov. 19). People cannot live on the current minimum wage. However, people should be careful what they wish for.
Increasing the minimum wage causes costs to go up. Some low-skill workers may be laid off because they are not adding to a profitable bottom line.
Raising the minimum wage is not the answer to increasing low-skilled workers’ standard of living. Raising their skill level is. Governments need to target actions that will improve skill sets to make individuals, and the labor force in general, more competitive in the world economy.
CHARLES SHANFELT
Gibsonburg, Ohio
Students must not be dropouts
Nothing is more important than getting a good education. The dropout rate is unacceptable.
Young people should not be allowed to drop out, no matter how long it takes to finish high school. We cannot allow ignorance to continue to put a drain on society.
You can’t get a decent job without at least a basic education.
LOU STEFANONI
306th Street
A bright idea about lighting
Three recent trips that I have taken spurred a question about public lighting. In Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans, the downtown area and warehouse and historic districts have historically appropriate lighting. It creates an ambience that improves neighborhoods.
When is Toledo going to develop the vision to rid our downtown area, warehouse district, and historic neighborhoods such as Vistula and the Old West End of the dreaded current lights and replace them with appropriate, historical lighting fixtures?
WAYNE NORTH
Collingwood Boulevard
Electric customers in for a shock?
I disagree with legislation before the Ohio General Assembly that would allow waivers for big industrial users of electricity from efficiency standards while punishing ordinary consumers (“Area communities joining fight against energy-efficiency bill; Lucas County preps resolution after Lake passed measure,” Nov. 12).
Utilities must reduce energy consumption by 22 percent by 2025. The proposed legislation has been introduced as a means to get the ordinary consumer to pay more for less consumption, but make it easier for big industrial users by issuing waivers.
I hope that the legislaton does not pass. If it does, Gov. John Kasich should have the good sense to veto it.
BRENDA HAGMAN
Rossford
State should stay out of religion
When I got my driver’s license renewed recently, I saw on the wall of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ office license plate brackets with messages that were religious and mentioned God.
Shouldn’t it be illegal for the state to pander to zealotry? Shouldn’t Ohio get out of the business of peddling religion?
RUSSELL REISING
Kingsgate Road