Letter to the editor: We need capitalism that considers long-term effects

Your Sept. 27 print edition featured side-by-side op-eds with incompatible objectives (“Making clean air a priority in Pittsburgh,” Sept. 26, TribLIVE; “Trump’s manufacturing, energy revival supports Pa. workers,” Sept. 22, TribLIVE).

The people of Southwestern Pennsylvania do want a pollution-free environment, but that is not possible with fracking. Just ask the people in Amity and Prosperity. I do take issue with the statement that banning fracking “would eliminate over 600,000 jobs by 2025 in Pennsylvania alone.” According to FracTracker Alliance, Pennsylvania jobs in natural gas never reached more than 30,000, and it is now less. Due to mismanagement of fracking, it is a dying industry. The regulations that President Trump eliminated will not save the industry, but it did increase our environmental pollution.

Pennsylvania has been losing manufacturing jobs for decades, and the trend continues. From the end of 2018 to the end of 2019, Pennsylvania manufacturing job losses were between 7,000 to over 9,000. Trump’s trade wars and tax policies have affected our job losses. The trade wars created a slump in manufacturing jobs, and the tax policies have encouraged outsourcing.

Instead, we need policies that encourage factories to stay in the U.S. We need penalties on companies that move their factories to other countries just to increase their profits. We need the type of capitalism that considers community, workers and long-term sustainability of the company as well as profits and short-term gain.

Joanne Garing

North Huntingdon