I needed an inexpensive large wall clock. A local merchant had many available. All were made in China only. The thought of future tariffs entered my mind. Now, since these were the only ones available, perhaps there should be labels or signs printed informing customers: NAME, in other words, no other choices, “No American-made equivalents”?

Whether the merchant pays a partial cost for a tariff or passes its full price on to the purchaser, Americans pay that cost. Government efficiency should be determined by the standards to meet the needs of its citizens, and not how well it does so.

Perhaps USAID is not well run; maybe it is. It isn’t from wars alone that very innocent people such as ourselves suffer and die. They also suffer and die as a result of neglect and deprivation. The dispensation of nutritional food and life-saving medicines may even come from inept, even corrupt, individuals or groups, but must not be denied them because a billionaire or billionaires do not want them.

Carl Scheiman
Damariscotta