Woonsocket Radio News Room

 

­­­­­­­­­Dave Richards for May 2nd…………

 

 

 

--I’ll start this week with a tip of the hat to Roger Laliberte.  This Thursday at the Twin River Event Center Roger will be among the radio greats to be inducted into the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame.  It’s about time Roger is recognized for his complete dedication to Francophiles and Francophones throughout the Blackstone Valley. 

 

 

 

  I met Roger Laliberte when I was a young man starting out in broadcasting.  We became good friends in short order.  And even though we no longer work together, I couldn’t be more delighted to see him honored in this way. 

 

 

 

 

 

  Toutes nos fe’licitations, Roger!

 

 

 

 

 

--We’ve all heard for years about treaties between governments.  Sometimes they are treaties ending the hostilities of war, sometimes pledging mutual defense of each other, and sometimes it’s a treaty outlining an agreement regarding trade.  In the 1990s, two treaties came into existence.  In Europe, the European Union (E.U.), and on this continent the North American Free Trade Agreement or (N.A.F.T.A). 

 

 

 

  Any agreement has an “upside” and a “downside”.  Those who push to establish them promote the advantages of the “upside” only.  This is natural.   After they are established, the disadvantages of the “downside”, often become apparent.  They say treaties are in this way not unlike a marriage.  And, indeed, the similarities of treaties to marriage are even more striking when you examine the case of Brexit.

 

 

 

  “Brexit” is the term used for the exit of Britain from the European Union, which they have elected to do.  The remaining 27 countries of the E.U. are describing it as a ‘divorce’ in their various native tongues.  The similarity goes even further.  The financial settlement they are demanding of Britain to allow her to leave is being called “alimony”.

 

 

 

  Naturally, it is in everyone else’s interest to make it difficult for a disenchanted member to simply leave the group.  In the case of Brexit, Britain has offered many of millions to the E.U..  When they finished laughing, the remaining E.U. members suggested a figure in the tens of billions of Euros would be more like it.  Now that’s what I call making it ‘difficult’!

 

 

 

  NAFTA is an agreement among and between the three countries on the North American Continent.  The United States, Mexico, and Canada have all agreed to remove tariffs, quotas, and other trade barriers between each other.  During negotiations, proponents said it would lead to trade and prosperity for all three and give them a more commanding standing in trade matters between their members and other non-NAFTA countries.  I remember at the time it was being debated there was much fear that failing to band together would put the countries on this continent at a distinct and dangerous disadvantage with the countries of the European Union. 

 

 

 

  When emotional arguments such as fear are used to make trade agreements look good, it is a clear sign that someone is getting desperate to pass it.  This is not the way to make mutually beneficial treaties.  Indeed, shortly after NAFTA was in full effect, many thousands of U.S. jobs were sent south of the border and the Mexican economy benefited greatly.  The U.S. economy improved slightly because after the initial investment the companies which sent their manufacturing operations to Mexico profited, again at the expense of U.S. workers.  Canada has seen insignificant benefit from the agreement.

 

 

 

  This past weekend, President Trump came right out and said he wanted the U.S. to leave NAFTA.  The president makes these kinds of statements, we have seen, with some regularity and also with apparent disregard for diplomatic protocols or for caring about what anyone else may think of it.  Since I was personally not a supporter of NAFTA when it started, you might expect me to be happy to hear the president talk this way, but you would be wrong.

 

 

 

  Yes, I’d love to see NAFTA not exist, but remember the costs being demanded of Britain in its exit from the E.U..  Is it possible leaving NAFTA could cost us more than leaving it is worth?  Canada probably wouldn’t care if the whole thing went away.  There were few tariffs between the U.S. and Canada before NAFTA.  Mexico and Canada were never big trade partners, either.  So there would likely not be much difference to the Canadians if they or we weren’t a part of NAFTA.  But Mexico would be another matter, and this is where I think our trouble would originate.

 

 

 

  Mexico benefited most from the NAFTA agreements.  Mexico would certainly be the one most hurt if the deal broke up.  Mexico, despite its present employment and relative prosperity has a huge problem with organized criminal gangs.  It wouldn’t take much imagination to expect that if the Mexican economy were severely damaged, the only ones to benefit will be the criminal gangs.  At the very least a poor economy would impair the ability of the Mexican government to fight organized crime.

 

 

 

  So NAFTA has one member who doesn’t care, one member who wants out, and one member who’ll be hurt.  Not a good position for any agreement to be in.

 

 

 

  Examining all these facts, plus the knowledge that a desperate Mexico could nationalize all those factories we built down there, and can drive the criminal gangs northward over the border into the United States if it wanted to, we are left with a distinct feeling of apprehension that the cost of the U.S. leaving NAFTA may be far higher than we wish to pay.  It leaves me clinging to the hope that our president will “go slow” in this direction.  Unfortunately for my hopes, “going slow” is not our new president’s long suit.  I do hope he learns, though.  Rather quickly.

 

 

 

--That’s what I think.  What do you think?  Comments to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or postal mail to Dave Richards, WOON Radio, 985 Park Avenue, Woonsocket, RI 02895-6332. 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

--30—                                                   

 

                                                                                                              

 

Dave Richards' Weekly Column in The Woonsocket Call




Dave Richards for April 25th…………

--Over the years we’ve all heard politicians who have promised that when they are elected, they’ll run the government “like a business”. These candidates gain a lot of favor from voters who find it easy to criticize the waste in government. The real truth of the matter is that there is some waste in government and there is some waste in business as well. I can tell you from my experience in management that the effort of eliminating all waste is in the same category as making gold out of lead. It’s been tried forever, but it doesn’t work, and the wise manager tries not to eliminate it, but to embrace it and then manage the size of it.

The big difference is that while waste can be managed and cut from business with the requisite kicking and screaming from those affected, in a business situation you don’t have to listen to the complaints………..but in government you do!

So anyone who says they’re going to eliminate wasteful spending in government is either lying to you or fooling themselves. It just can’t happen in government when you are elected by those affected. This is not to say that we can’t try to be more thrifty with the people’s money, we can, and many in government try to be. I applaud this, but it can go too far. A case in point is the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority, commonly known by its acronym, RIPTA. The people at RIPTA have an impossible job. Their goal is to provide transportation services for everybody and anybody who needs them to go anywhere at any time within our state. But they cannot meet this goal without losing tons of money. So they make compromises. They lose less money, and they fall a bit short of their goal, trying to find some point of balance between the two unfortunate situations.

It’s the same everywhere in this world, if there were good money to be made running public transportation, for-profit companies would be doing it.

In every locality there is this big long list of things which people need. Some of these needs can be provided at a profit. Some cannot. Businesses take all the profitable things, leaving government to provide the services which are not profitable, but needed. This is a fact of life, and if nobody ever told you this before, you missed an important lesson.

But if you did miss that lesson, you are not alone. It seems to me a significant number of Representatives and Senators in the Rhode Island General Assembly haven’t learned that lesson yet, either. They keep squeezing RIPTA to operate with less losses, but then show up at the hearings telling them they must NOT eliminate routes which lose the most money. Talk about a rock and a hard place!

Some of the inefficiencies of a government agency or, in this case an Authority, are not of their making. I was told confidentially by a RIPTA official some years ago that one of the criticisms leveled against them is that the big diesel-pusher busses we see so much are seldom full of passengers. At RIPTA, they know this, they’re not dummies. They’d love to use smaller busses when called for at a reduced operating cost, but the problem is that the drivers who drive the big busses need skills and certifications that a driver of a smaller bus wouldn’t need. The less-qualified drivers of smaller busses would earn less, and that makes sense. But then what do you do with the drivers who qualify for the higher wages of driving the big busses? You can’t pay them less to drive a smaller bus, they have financial responsibilities based upon the higher wages. You can’t just replace them and put them out of work either, because a labor union is involved, making any kind of changes problematic.

RIPTA continues to work on these problems. They’ve had to raise rates recently. I still think riding a RIPTA bus is a bargain overall, but I do admit they don’t go everywhere I need to go when I need to go there. And if they do, they don’t come back on a schedule which fits my needs. I understand why they cannot. But the Fabulous Denise and I still use them whenever we can.

As part of their heroic efforts to “shovel against the tide”, RIPTA is launching another survey to gather information from those who use their services and those who would like to. The survey started yesterday and continues until Sunday May 21st and can be found online at www.ripta.com (click on “Survey”). The information in this fifth annual survey is important to them, so important that everyone who goes online and tells them what they think will be entered into a drawing for prizes which include free bus passes.

I am a big supporter of public transportation. I wish the financial realities of running public transportation were different. But I am glad that our government supplies this vital service, even at a loss. Sometimes it’s not ALL about the money, you know.

--That’s what I think. What do you think? Comments to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or postal mail to Dave Richards, WOON Radio, 985 Park Avenue, Woonsocket, RI 02895-6332.

Thanks for reading!

--30— 

This blog changes each Monday evening. 
The column runs in the Editorial section of The Call each Tuesday.
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Dave Richards for October 18th…………

--I am writing you this week from Buffalo, New York.

I love being in our Beautiful Blackstone Valley, but business has called me away from home. The drive out here was nice, good roads, nice scenery. A large part of the drive took us through agricultural areas of upstate New York which look like the opening scenes of the old 1960s TV show ‘Green Acres’. Seems out here they didn’t suffer the gypsy moth infestation we did back home this year and the colors on the trees were magnificent.

--Driving along the New York State Throughway I saw something I’ve never seen before. It wasn’t the signs telling drivers that texting can wait, we’ve all seen those signs. But what was different about these signs was that it told you that “sending a text can wait 5 minutes”. And surely enough, 5 minutes further down the road, there it was…………a “Texting Pull-Off”.

That’s right, built at obviously considerable expense into each side of the New York State Throughway at regular intervals are special places to pull your car off the highway, do all the texting you want to and then pull back onto the highway. And each one was complete with huge signs explaining it all to you. Mind you, there were also Rest Areas, but these were separate, and fewer and farther between than the “Texting Pull-Offs”.

I thought about that for a minute. Here’s a state which has made it illegal to even hold mobile phone in your hand and speak into it while driving spending millions of dollars so you can stay on the throughway and text away. Amazing.

--I was honored last Friday to be present that the dedication ceremony for the monument to fallen police officers in front of the Woonsocket Police Station. It was a fine and heart-felt ceremony complete with stories of how much work went into moving the monument from the corner of Hamlet Avenue and Cumberland Street in Woonsocket to its new, proud location at the entrance of the police station. Everyone is invited to stop when you have a chance to view the names and years etched in stone on the honor roll of police officers who have passed on.

If you wish, I can save you the trip. We shot a video of the dedication ceremonies and have posted it on www.woonsocketradio.com.

--When you travel you visit a number of public eating places where you can really see how ‘the locals live’. I find it very interesting to hear what people in other parts of the country talk about. I find I can learn a lot by listening to the varied topics people from far away think are important.

So here I was, seated at my table for dinner. But it wasn’t a private table, there were two men also seated there who were not dining with me. They were engaged in an argument about politics. Yes, this political moderate watched and listened quietly as a staunch conservative Republican and a dedicated liberal Democrat discussed Obama Care.

The GOP proponent was cursing our new system of forced universal health insurance for all the people who now are mandated to pay for health insurance they cannot afford. He went on to inform his opponent that there are people right now who have insurance but are denied benefits of insurance because the only way insurance companies make money is to deny claims.

The Democrat shook his head soberly and began his response by saying that “bad health care is better than no health care at all”. Adding that he knew some people were being hurt, but felt that what is wrong with the system can be corrected over time and the only thing which could have been worse than what we used to have was to do nothing to change the system.

As I listened to the two of them go at it hammer and tong I was stricken by the thought that neither of these two verbal combatants found it necessary to call the other one names or belittle them. It was a passionate debate about an important topic, but neither man disgraced himself by stooping to name calling or even being discourteous to the other. At this moment I thought to myself that this is how political debate should always be. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our two leading candidates for president could behave so respectfully? Think of the things we could learn about the problems our country faces if we had a little less circus and a lot more serious problem solving!

 

--That’s what I think. What do you think? Comments to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or postal mail to Dave Richards, WOON Radio, 985 Park Avenue, Woonsocket, RI 02895-6332. Thanks for reading.

--30— 

This blog changes each Monday evening. 
The column runs in the Editorial section of The Call each Tuesday.
President Trump says the tariffs imposed on other countries are having the desired effect, and he's now open to negotiations. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said his initial tariff plan is over, and he's watching it settle in. He said every country has called, asking to cut a trade deal with the U.S. to avoid the tariffs.        Stocks are closing sharply lower one day after President Trump announced sweeping global tariffs. The S&P 500 had its worse day since 2020 as the White House announced a baseline tariff rate of ten-percent against most countries yesterday that will go into effect on Saturday. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 16-79 to 40-545. The S&P 500 lost 274 points to 53-96. The Nasdaq lost 10-50 points to 16-550.        A multi-day severe weather event is unfolding for more than 55-million people. It comes after at least seven people were killed in the South Central U.S. after storms that included several tornadoes hit the region yesterday. Tonight, there is still a tornado threat for the same areas, but forecasters warn there could also be potentially catastrophic flooding in the Mid-South and Midwest.        The Federal Aviation Administration is offering more support to air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport. The Critical Incident Stress Management team will be meeting with airport personnel sometime early this month. The FAA is also reviewing the arrival rate at the airport and will conduct regular wellness checks.        The Senate has confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The television personality was confirmed on a party-line vote of 53-45. Oz now assumes a role that provides health insurance to roughly 160 million Americans.        Steven Spielberg and George Lucas top the latest Forbes list of celebrity billionaires. The latest Forbes ranking of the world's wealthiest people includes 18 celebrities, with film director Steven Spielberg topping the list at five-point-three-billion dollars. Star Wars creator George Lucas is in second place with a net worth of five-point-one-billion dollars.       

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