After reading the Sunday letters to the editor regarding right-to-work laws, I am appalled at the lack of balance. Simply put, right to work allows a worker to make a choice: Either join the union or not. It does not ban the unions, nor negate or in any way interfere with collective bargaining rights. It does not reduce negotiated pay or benefits packages.

Maybe it's time for a little competition in the union ranks. By withholding their dues, workers have the opportunity to make the union better serve their interests and spend the money collected from dues in a more open and transparent manner.

All of the union caterwauling rehashes the same old lies and inaccuracies as they attempt to preserve their status quo. After all, unions have existed for decades in other right-to-work states -- states that have enjoyed greater economic growth than Michigan.

Jim Reb,

Oxford

World economy sets wages

All of the rhetoric in Sunday's paper against right-to-work laws shares a common flaw: It assumes that unions can set the wage scale for the workers in a country. In fact, the economic forces that exist in a world economy prevent this. As was shown in the recent near collapse of the U.S. auto industry, a wage scale above what the world economy will allow is not sustainable.

At one time, the U.S. economy, particularly its manufacturing economy, was strong enough that a high labor rate could be sustained, but that is no longer the case. The manufacturing economy of China already challenges that of the U.S., and India is coming on strong. If we try to set our labor rates arbitrarily high, manufacturing will flee to more competitive countries.

So right-to-work or no right-to-work, the world economy will set the labor rates and the living standard in the U.S. Allowing the unions to think and act otherwise will only make the adjustment to a world economy more painful.

Wayne M. Brehob, &

Dearborn&

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Police out of line

While only one person (the actual murderer) knows who killed Jane Bashara, I find it horrifying that the Grosse Pointe Park police have from the first moment publicly described Bob Bashara as a person of interest.

This is the United States of America, lest these incompetents forgot. While it's reasonable to question Bashara, to use and to continue to use such a phrase at a time like this is repugnant. If they have evidence, let the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office bring it up in court. Have we lost all human consideration?

Harvey S. Bronstein

Farmington Hills

Late with solutions

I really wish that the mayor's administration and Detroit City Council had acted with a sense of urgency right after being elected a few years back. It would have saved us city residents and workers a lot of fretting and headache, with all of these eleventh-hour proposals of drastic service cutbacks and shutdowns.

Christopher Currie

Detroit

Santa won't fix roads

It is one thing when a 5-year-old can't wait for Santa to magically bring free presents under the Christmas tree. It is another thing when grown adults are still waiting for the jolly old fellow.

We hear the public constantly complaining about the bad roads in Michigan (including all the infrastructure). But try to finance a rebuilding program, as our governor suggested, and you'll hear the outcry, "Don't raise my taxes!" Thus, we have the new poll showing 58% oppose raising fees and gas taxes to fix up roads. Sorry, folks, Santa won't magically fix this problem.

John Cipolletti

Dearborn Heights

The state takes away

I don't believe the governor is talking about raising taxes on gasoline and on car license plates. Is he going to take me to my doctors' appointments? My car is in need of a tune-up, new brakes and other engine work.

I am a disabled senior, and the other day when I went to the grocery store, I saw an elderly woman looking at food in the meat department the same way I was looking at it -- in shock and shaking my head. I asked her how anyone thinks we are to eat anything but pasta and rice. She said she didn't know either. And that was before I heard of the governor's new great money-maker for the State of Michigan.

Gov. Rick Snyder is creating a new poor in this state. Thanks for nothing, Snyder!

Sharon Cunningham

Warren

Well managed at EMU

The Jan. 16 article regarding unrestricted net assets of Michigan's universities left many readers unaware of the unique direction Eastern Michigan University has taken in budget management ("Spending of funds at state universities questioned").

As the article states, Eastern was the only university to reduce its unrestricted net assets last year -- nearly 28% -- from $56.1 million to $40.5 million (well below reserves at other universities highlighted in the article). We used the funds to help pay for the renovation of our largest and busiest classroom building, as well as to make improvements to residence halls.

Drawing on our reserves reflects Eastern's strategy to manage our budget effectively -- identify efficiencies to streamline operations and cut costs, while directing resources to academic quality, student success and keeping tuition low.

We have led the state of Michigan, by far, in tuition restraint over the last three years. Our overall increase in tuition has averaged just 2.5%. Students are paying only $20 more per credit hour than three years ago.

Susan Martin

President, Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti

Future managers

To those mostly Republican, outstate voters who support the emergency manager law: Did you ever stop to think that such a law could take away your comfortable status?

A law applies to all. What if, at some future time, Michigan elected a very liberal governor? What if he or she didn't like the way a city was running its affairs and decided to appoint an emergency manager to run it the way he or she thought it should be run?

What if it was decided that all those over a certain income had to pay more taxes to make the city run more fairly? What if that manager got rid of all the conservative officials you elected and appointed liberal ones?

Would you support the law in those cases, or would you be the first to start a petition to get rid of it? Are you so ready to allow any governor to take away your democratic rights now?

Michaela Terrell

Detroit

Wealthy GOP politics

In response to the Jan. 27 column by Bobby Schostak, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party ("Obama's mission: It's all politics"): Oh, and what is Schostak's mission? The preservation and enhancement of extraordinary wealth regardless of the consequences to the average Joe through the political process?

With statements like "growing health care costs due to the Affordable Health Care Act," Schostak is either lying or deluded. Health care costs have been rising faster than the cost of living for decades. The Affordable Health Care Act has little to do with the overall cost of health care, whose continual rise is a function of a poorly regulated and extremely profitable marketplace.

Republican conservatism is a valuable component of our system. The current version of it, however, is a cynical, confrontational and potentially destructive version for the benefit of very few.

Peter Gluklick

Huntington Woods

Who's playing politics?

Bobby Schostak takes President Barack Obama to task for giving re-election-themed speeches while he knows all too well his party spent the first two years of Obama's presidency campaigning for the mid-term elections and these last two for the next election.

And he wonders why the problems left behind by his party still linger, or so he wants you to believe he knows better. It's all politics, to be sure.

Mario Boccarossa

Dearborn