READERS WRITE: FEB. 9

Some tax cut perks are one-offs

Companies large and small will benefit significantly from the reduction in corporate taxes and the easing of federal regulations for their businesses. In anticipation of this windfall, several of the larger corporations have already announced one-off bonuses for their employees. I would be the last person to object to any increase in income for American workers, but it would be naive to heap too much credit on businesses that give those bonuses. A bonus by its very nature is a one-time payment which, unlike a permanent wage increase, does not have an effect on a worker’s long-term income, benefits or retirement. So thank your boss for the bonus, but realize a wage increase would have been so much better.

IAN K. SHAW, MILTON

Paul Krugman documents the U.S economy’s rapid growth of renewable energy. However, the Trump administration, having already been outgunned by China over solar panels, wants to place a tariff on imported panels. The effect of this will put some Americans in the renewable energy industry out of work. This is no small issue. Forbes reports that in the United States, more people were employed in solar power in 2016 than in generating electricity through coal, gas and oil energy combined. Solar power employed 43 percent of the electric power generation sector’s workforce in 2016, while fossil fuels, combined, accounted for just 22 percent. Trump’s pitiful attempt to please coal and oil barons like Murray Energy Corp. and the Koch brothers moves against all the current economic trends. This will be even more the case when a carbon fee and dividend bill is passed by Congress.

DAVID GREENLAND, SANDY SPRINGS