Spinning out of control

To the editor:

When references are made about the possibility of the existence of a bizarro world, I respond that this is it and an opposite world would be the normal one. Two examples of this appear in the Dec. 9 Chief.

The first is in the story by Marina Villeneuve, "Report big racial disparity in New York State prison discipline." She reports that between 2015 and 2020, black New York State inmates were 22 percent more likely to be disciplined than whites. Hispanics were 12 percent more likely.

A 2016 New York Times report found racial epithets and disparate disciplinary treatment against blacks and Hispanics.

Inspector General Lucy Lang calls for anti-bias training for all state corrections employees. You mean they have to be taught that it's wrong to discriminate against non-whites? Shouldn't anybody who's given a position of authority already be required to know that? Here's a better solution. Fire the bigots and replace them with people who's treatment of prisoners will be fair.

The second example of how bizarre this world is comes from Christopher Rugaber's article, "Hiring stays strong, muddling Fed Reserve's inflation fight." We're told that the "problems" with the economy are that unemployment is too low and that average hourly pay is up 5.1 percent. In fact, workers have never recovered from decades of their wages not keeping up with inflation. Too many workers are making poverty wages and the middle class is much smaller than it was at its peak. Furthermore, how is it better to have more people out of work?

Good salaries and low unemployment  being considered bad shows two things. Despite the propaganda, under-regulated capitalism does not work for most people. Secondly, this truly is a bizarro world.

Richard Warren