Readers offer their opinions on incoming American president Donald Trump’s big promises and the threat posed by climate change.
For Trump’s promise of $1.87 gasoline to occur, West Texas Intermediate crude would have to fall from $71 per barrel to $20.
Campaigning on increased tariffs and decreased taxation is contradictory. Tariffs are taxes on importers; they are not paid by foreign countries. The cost of tariffs will be passed on, sometimes before the tariffs are even in place, and increase the cost of living.
The Wall Street Journal estimated that increased tariffs would raise taxes by $2,940 per household. What is being proposed is essentially replacing income tax revenue with another tax.
Income tax reductions disproportionately benefit the top one per cent; consumer price increases resulting from tariffs are disproportionately borne by the rest of the population.
Americans could lose between $46 billion and $78 billion in annual spending power. Tariffs could be applied to imports of $195 billion worth of food and beverage items.
Trump also campaigned on mass deportation of undocumented workers. Forty-five per cent of all U.S. agricultural workers are undocumented. If they are deported, higher-paid workers will be required, driving up costs in the industry.
Dissatisfaction with the Liberals will probably result in a historic defeat. Pierre Poilievre talks about cost-of-living issues. Hopefully, he has more to offer than three-word slogans.
David Steele, Saskatoon
Ignoring climate change likened to house fire
Forest fires and wildfires, floods, droughts, rising sea levels and wars are no longer the stuff of apocalyptic novels and movies. Climate change is the unnaturally accelerated effect of human activity upon our global weather patterns.
Since it is hard to comprehend the global effects of climate change, imagine the earth as the house you currently live in. Up in the attic and down in the basement a low-grade fire is smouldering away.
The homeowner can’t see the flames, but occasionally notices the surfaces of the floors and ceilings and walls are hot to the touch. The homeowner’s response is not to check for fire, but to run a cold rag over the hot spots.
Apparently, the homeowner is also deaf; the smoke detector alarm has been going off for 40 years. Every so often the frustrated homeowner buys new smoke detectors, but judges each one faulty for sensing smoke and triggering the alarm.
The cost of batteries has consumer advocates lobbying for sales tax exemptions; the government passes legislation to make smoke detectors optional in schools, hospitals and nursing homes. A legislative proposal to ban the storage of gasoline inside homes is defeated in the legislature.
Meanwhile, the invisible interior fires are slowly burning through the infrastructure of the house — wires, pipes, and insulation — at great expense. Ironically, the air quality is so poor everyone wears masks.
Wayne Turner, Saskatoon
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