To the Editor:
Re “The Economic Indicator We Need? A Candy Bar,” by Paul Donovan (Opinion guest essay, Jan. 21):
Contrary to Mr. Donovan’s claims, I’m not uninformed about inflation. I know the latest year-over-year inflation rate, as well as the latest month-to-month inflation rate.
Indeed, using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most-cited measure of inflation — the Consumer Price Index — my real (inflation-adjusted) salary in winter 2024 is less than my real salary in winter 2020, despite having received a raise each of the past three years based on strong performance reviews, solid company performance and a resurgent economy.
I’m also informed about the causes of inflation since 2020, including the multiple pandemic relief packages passed under both the Trump and Biden administrations, the supply chain disruptions, corporate “profit margin expansions” and inflationary policies in other countries.
Given these realities, I have every right to be upset with our disingenuous political and corporate leaders who claim that inflation isn’t a concern. And I have every right to be upset with the numerous opinion pieces, including Mr. Donovan’s, that attempt to explain away the ignorance of my good fortune.
Jonathan Carey
Chatham, N.J.
To the Editor:
The primary reason the population is alarmed by inflation is that the right-wing noise machine is hammering the message that our economy is in terrible shape 24/7 on Fox Noise … er, News. “Prices went up and didn’t go back down!” is blared from the rooftops.
Any possible angle, whether imagined or merely exaggerated, that erodes public satisfaction and trust in government is mercilessly exploited. Nothing must stand in the way of naked power to “Make America Great Again.”
Mark Knobil
Pittsburgh
To the Editor:
This article is not only patronizing, but also dead wrong.
The reason that average Americans remain worried about inflation writ large, as opposed to inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index, is that home and rent prices have soared and are not included in the C.P.I.
Housing, unlike Snickers bars, is the largest part of a person’s expenses, so the rise in prices does meaningfully affect a person’s perception of the increased cost of living, regardless of how economists define inflation.
Sarah Simon
Portland, Maine
Are People Tuning Out the Trump Show?
To the Editor:
Re “The Election May Lead People to Hide From News” (column, Jan. 20):
I read Michelle Goldberg’s column on Americans’ potentially waning interest in the Donald Trump show not as someone with skin in the ratings and clicks game, but as someone desperate to preserve my sanity when everything I read and watch about Mr. Trump enrages me and causes further despair.
After eight years of keeping a vigilant eye on MAGA and our country’s acquiescence to it, my investment of time and attention has yielded no tangible benefits but has hurt me plenty.
Ms. Goldberg may have inadvertently offered a path to salvation for people like me: Just tune it all out. As in the example she gives of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, I already feel myself retreating “into private life and aesthetic satisfactions.”
None of this means that I won’t vote in November, but the psychic cost of continual engagement if President Biden loses is just too high.
Peter Vertes
Moreland Hills, Ohio
To the Editor:
I read with dismay and disbelief Michelle Goldberg’s column about widespread disengagement in the face of another Donald Trump candidacy.
Last week, here in battleground Georgia, I attended a Zoom call with scores of other activists to learn about new voter contact programs in place as we ramp up to November. The enthusiasm was palpable, and participants vowed to do even more campaign work than they had done in 2020.
Other friends I talk with — not necessarily progressive or political — tell me they will work to defeat MAGA. People who awoke to the Trump threat in 2016 have not gone away or given up. We will not stand to have a convicted sexual abuser and authoritarian fanboy lead the free world.
And we know that Mr. Trump will be a loser yet again, despite the mainstream media’s hysterical reporting of the caucus votes of 56,000 Iowans and meaningless polls.
Barbara Burt
Athens, Ga.
Mayor Eric Adams’s Veto
Take just one example: jail buses. The bill Intro 549-A would prohibit correction officers from restraining detainees while transporting them to and from court. About one-third of detainees at Rikers are facing homicide charges, and the majority are in for violence. Police officers would never put an arrestee in a police car unrestrained, yet correction officers are supposed to hope for the best?
The article also does not mention that the federal monitor overseeing New York City jails strongly opposes this legislation, stating that it would heighten safety risks to everyone on Rikers.
Mayor Eric Adams is determined to support the safety of correction officers and those in their custody. That is why he vetoed the legislation.
Lisa Zornberg
New York
The writer is chief counsel to Mayor Eric Adams and City Hall.
A U.S.-Canada Wall
To the Editor:
Re “Republicans Push a Northern Border Wall, Too” (news article, Jan. 23):
I am a Canadian who would wholeheartedly support the construction of a wall along the northern border of the U.S. as long as it would also stop the flow of illegal firearms from the U.S. to Canada — a scourge that has measurably decreased the quality of life in my country.
L. Flynn
St. George, Utah
A Refuge From Politics
To the Editor:
Re “Taking a Cue From the Squirrels in My Birdhouse” (Opinion, nytimes.com, Jan. 8):
Margaret Renkl writes so well, describing a quiet cottage in the woods where she and her husband go to decompress. I share Ms. Renkl’s anxiety about the upcoming election. I wish I could be more like her husband, who trusts that “American voters aren’t fools,” but alas, I do not.
Seventy-four million people cast their ballot in 2020 for Donald Trump. And while millions more voted for Joe Biden, I get no satisfaction knowing that 74 million believed that Mr. Trump would be a better president, despite having survived the four years of his tumultuous presidency.
Right now, that quiet cottage in the woods sounds very, very appealing to me. And if Mr. Trump wins come November, make it a cottage in Canada.
Len DiSesa
Dresher, Pa.