Go after CEOs, not workers

Re "Issue of the Week: Pensions"(Letters, Jan. 23): Before President Ronald Reagan, most U.S. workers had defined-benefit pensions. These yield twice as much as defined-contribution 401(k)-type plans.

Public workers are among the last with defined-benefit plans. Private pension plans used to be well-funded, too, but the executive suite raided these plans to increase CEO compensation and goose corporate profits. For the details, see journalist Ellen Schultz's 2011 book, "Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers."

Despite the constant drumbeat of stories about exceptionally greedy public servants spiking their pensions or double-dipping, most greed remains, as usual, in corporate America.

Economist Dean Baker also notes that 80 percent of the nation's public pension problems stem from Wall Street's frauds, not public employee greed.

How about prosecuting the frauds instead of punishing their victims?

– Mark Dempsey, Orangevale

Reduce pay for pension execs

Re "Pension board raises execs' pay" (Our Region, Jan. 24): Here we are again hearing the same old story that "you can't get good people if you don't pay the right money." I don't think there would be much kickback if these raises were in the reasonable range percentage-wise, but for them to be 13 to 22 percent is beyond stupidity even if the economy was good.

I suggest that Richard Stensrud, the CEO of Sacramento County's retirement system, is a prime example of paying too much for the quality of the decisions that are being made. Some sanity needs to be brought back to life at the decision-making level soon, before everything public is bankrupt.

Perhaps a $50,000-a-year person should be CEO for a real-world perspective.

– Jim Meeter, Herald

Look to desalination, not canal

Re "Should California build a Delta water canal it rejected in the 1980s?" (Head to Head, Jan. 18): In the discussion about water transfer around or under the Delta, overlooked was the idea of building desalination plants in the Los Angeles basin.

Major cities around the world have embraced this approach. If water transfers are provided to Central Valley farms, they should come with stipulations banning water transfers to Los Angeles. Then we would have water to return to the Delta.

A desalination plan in the United Arab Emirates produces 300 million cubic meters of water per year. Miami's plant produces just 12 percent of that, but meets its needs and has the capacity to meet more demand.

The technology exists. We just need the people to step up and take the reins.

– Jeffrey Booth, Rocklin

Private rights remain essential

Re "High court GPS ruling leaves much unsettled" (Editorial, Jan. 24): The editorial highlights the court's attempt "to reconcile 18th-century legal principles with 21st-century technology." The principle of private rights is not limited to the 18th century. It is enduring in our country, or must be.

The lack of media attention to the position of the executive branch that we lose private rights on public property is frightful. This should be as much of the story as the court's unanimous opinion that the position is without merit.

– Herbert W. Greydanus, Sacramento

U.S. firms should show loyalty

Re "How U.S. lost out on Apple's iPhone work" (Page A1, Jan. 22): The article makes great points about U.S. manufacturing deficiencies and what this country needs to compete. We need to work as one country instead of 50 different fiefdoms.

But it also points out unfair advantages that China gives to its own businesses – favoritism, massive subsidies and a modern-day type of enslavement (lax labor laws, dormitories and 24/7 workers).

The story also makes it clear that the corporations that America helped build and flourish, such as Apple, no longer feel an obligation or allegiance to this great country. Yet they have no problem demanding that taxpayer-supported law enforcement agencies help enforce copyright laws for their foreign-made products.

We can't to go back in time, but it would be great if businesses that succeeded because of the United States would help this country, where they got their start.

– Michael Santos, Antelope

Regulate online gambling

Re "Should we place bets on online gambling?" (Editorial, Jan. 8): The Bee editorial board's do-nothing approach to regulating Internet poker games would leave players vulnerable and let jobs and revenues go to Nevada.

That's a lose-lose proposition for California.

No matter what their background or income level, working Californians who exercise their choice to play poker deserve the best protections in the nation. That's what they get when they play poker in a brick-and-mortar cardroom, where operators are subject to tough regulations and background checks.

But for the 2 million Californians who already play online poker, the offshore poker websites offer no protections against fraudulent operators, identity thieves or predators looking for young victims.

The editorial board is wrong when it says regulating online poker is about expanding games. Californians are playing online poker right now.

But rather than updating our current laws to provide strict oversight and regulate this industry, the editorial board would have lawmakers put their heads in the sand, while billions of revenues and thousands of jobs leave California.

– Clarke Rosa, president/owner of Capitol Casino, Sacramento

Who has executive experience?

Re "Romney goes after Gingrich on ethics" (Page A1, Jan. 24): It is rather strange that Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and others continue to rail on and on that Barack Obama has no executive experience. Uh, he's been president of the United States for three years.

He has more presidential experience than all of the GOP contenders combined.

– Brad Baumann, Rocklin

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