Transgender flag decision is unfair

Re: “Transgender flag to fly throughout year” (Page B1, March 25).

I was disappointed to learn that the Santa Clara County government has announced that the transgender flag will be flown at the county government building year-round.

That decision is wrong because it’s unfair. No group, class, culture or religion should receive special treatment or separate rights. In America, groups don’t have rights, individuals do. Is it fair for one segment of the population to be recognized by the government and have a designated flag flown outside a government building year-round? What about the others? Are they not deserving too?

This decision does not promote unity. It fosters resentment. A dozen different groups must be wondering, “Why do they get their flag flown at the county building, but we don’t?”

— Pete Campbell, San Jose

Trump needs to learn about basic economics

Since Ronald Reagan was president, most Republican leaders have followed the principle of free market economics. This theory, promoted by Milton Friedman in his book “Free to Choose,” is that economies prosper best when controlled by supply and demand, not limited by government regulation.

Once Donald Trump tried to interfere with the free market using tariffs, other countries immediately rebelled. Richard Nixon tried to control inflation with wage and price limits, and these failed almost as badly.

I hope Trump’s failure doesn’t send us into another Great Depression, which deepened in the 1930s after the last attempt to raise tariffs. Maybe he needs to go back to college and study economics instead of limiting dissent at schools like Columbia.

— Bill Graham, Salinas

Shame on U.S. firms that send jobs away

Re: “Trump’s new tariffs test Apple’s global supply chain” (Page C7, April 4).

Shame on Apple and other American companies for moving production to countries with cheap labor. American industry and the union workers are the biggest losers while the shareholders and the CEOs make obscene profits.

The top 1% of U.S. business leaders accumulate these large amounts of wealth because of this outsourced cheap labor. The average worker struggles to find a job that allows them to afford the high cost of rent, food and utilities. This is one reason many American men have given up the job search.

The American way of doing business needs to change if everyone is going to prosper in the future.

— Patricia Marquez Rutt, Redwood City

Tariffs will target U.S. consumers

The only thing the new U.S. tariffs on other countries will do is raise prices for consumers.

A looming trade war is not a good thing.

There’s even a tariff on Lesotho, a fairly poor African country. All this seems so unfair.

Hopefully, President Trump will change his mind and see that the tariffs will cause inflation and less spending.

— Celeste McGettigan, San Jose