Readers express skepticism about recent reports on needed repairs for Dallas City Hall, discuss the mechanics of tariffs, and offer opinions on voting and social issues.
Readers question the recent studies on Dallas City Hall , explain how tariffs work, want the ‘Majority Middle’ to vote wisely and don’t agree with targeting Muslims. Dallas City Hall opened in 1978. In 2018, a 2-year study determined that after 40 years of use, $37 to 39 million of repairs were needed, which equates to about $1 million per year.
Eight years later, a much more rushed report says $329 million of repairs are now needed. This suggests $290 million of wear and tear occurred in just the last eight years, which equates to $36 million per year.This does not seem credible based on the historical record, nor can it be explained by the opaque summaries released to date. Everyone involved must have time to properly review and understand these summaries, the data behind them and sort out such significant discrepancies.Until that happens, it is premature to make any decision about the validity of the report, much less make any decisions based upon it.. Like our own Declaration of Independence, it was also considered revolutionary. He stated that the true wealth of a nation was not the gold and silver reserves it kept locked up, but rather the full weight of goods and services produced by a nation. We call that gross domestic product, or GDP.He also proposed the “invisible hand” theory — individuals pursuing their own self-interest served the betterment of society as a whole. That is a bedrock notion of capitalism, which the U.S. has employed so well we are by far the richest country on earth. Later, economist David Ricardo proved that if each nation made and produced what they did best and traded freely with other nations, all would benefit. Trade is not a zero-sum game, as our president would lead you to believe. Since 1980, global GDP has increased from about $40 trillion to $180 trillion. The growth rate has only gotten steeper in the last 10 years, except for COVID in 2020. In 1980, our global share among the six largest global economies was about 25%. In 2024, the latest data available, the U.S. share was 26.3%.If other countries have taken huge advantage of us for decades as President Donald Trump says, then why would the entire global GDP increase by more than fourfold and the U.S. maintain or slightly increase our share? Put another way, our trade deficits with most other countries are a sign of a strong, growing U.S. economy with robust consumer demand. Besides now being judged unconstitutional, tariffs played a large role in worsening the Great Depression. Tariffs are worst when issued broadly, which is the current plan — 15% on the whole world! This goes against 250 years of economic theory, 45 years of current real-world information and sensible logic.Re: “It’s time for the exhausted quiet majority to act — We have allowed sound bites and personal attacks to replace statesmanship and leadership,” by Patrick Payton, Monday Opinion.Payton nails it with his description of so many American voters as “exhausted.” Every morning when my wife and I share coffee and, we talk about how weary we are of the poisonous politics of the past decade. But let me inject a cautionary note. Payton writes that we can be delivered from this misery “if the Majority Middle will awaken from their exhausted slumber and demand more from those we elect and hopefully hold them accountable.” That sounds great until we consider this blunt fact: President Donald Trump did not return to the presidency last year on the strength of his base voters alone. Trump’s approval among the MAGA diehards has never raised him above about 35% to 38% of the electorate. What happened, alas, is that millions of the so-called middle voters Payton praises no doubt worried about jobs, prices and the economy, added their votes to the MAGA base and brought Trump back to Washington, where he has launched a corrupt, destructive power grab like this country has never seen before.Re: “Stop selling Texans a Shariah scare — It’s an old playbook: Isolate, exaggerate and claim righteousness to win elections," by Peter Johnson, Sunday Opinion. Thank you, Peter Johnson, for your voice. You are right — racist scare tactics are again being repeated. This time, the target is the Muslim community. As you said, the scare tactics and lies about migrants have been overused, so it’s time to shift to another target. I am 73 years old and grew up in a small community of German descendants. Until I left home, I was never exposed to people who did not look like me.Thankfully my parents always reminded us we are all God’s people, no matter the color of our skin or our religion. My wife and I currently reside in Garland and belong to a parish that is so very richly diverse. We are made up of people who can trace their roots to Africa, South America, Mexico, Puerto Rica, the Pacific Islands, Asia and of course Europe. These are the people my wife and I worship and pray with. I thank God for the blessing of this parish as it reminds me every day that we are all one people devoted to God. The color of the skin does not matter to our Lord and if we truly want to call ourselves Christians, it should not matter to us.Dallas Morning News editorials are written by the paper's Editorial Board and serve as the voice and view of the paper. The board considers a broad range of topics and is overseen by the Editorial Page Editor.
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