Toll system follows laws of economics
A letter writer claims that charging more for I-85 HOT lane usage when traffic congestion is high is an example of government doing something contrary to logic (“Way toll rates are used defeats their purpose,” Readers write, Opinion, Feb. 17.) He could not be more wrong. The faster HOT lane is a limited resource and demand for it goes up when the free lanes get slow.
Its price must therefore rise, by the simple business logic that critics so often demand our government should use. It is a classic example of market-driven revenue maximization, where the goal isn’t to get more people to use the HOT lane (as he posits), but to get the most money out of it. It is perfectly sensible if, in fact, it is best that government should be run like a business.
Robert Wolfson, Marietta
Some fail to appreciate where jobs come from
Regarding “Spend on children and seniors, not weapons” (Readers write, Opinion, Feb. 19), there is an organization that a high school graduate can join — which will house, feed, clothe and pay the graduate while the student obtains job skills. Once the student has learned the new skill (after completing a work program in return for this service), the graduate can either continue with the organization until he or she retires or take the newfound skills into the marketplace. This organization also contracts with thousands of companies which employ hundreds of thousands of employees as a result of this business relationship.
I’m referring to the U.S. military — the most effective jobs-training and jobs-creation program the government has ever come up with.
Defunding the military is a huge mistake.
Brian Wilson, Atlanta
Nations we occupy not begging us to stay
Now I have read it all. Amity Shlaes’ column is without doubt one of most amazing contributions I have ever read (“Why Obama’s pullout push may harm rather than help,” Opinion, Feb. 18).
Her argument that we should continue to have military bases in foreign countries after the military strategic need has gone, in order to help their economies, is totally absurd. In most cases, these countries did not want a U.S. military presence in the first place — and certainly would willingly give up any economic benefit to see it gone.
Ian Shaw, Cumming
