Taxing behaviors

Regarding “Sanders gives surprising boost to Big Soda amid ballot battles” (Aug. 29): Progressives need to be be open to regressive taxes. Regarding the piece on the San Francisco and Oakland soda tax measures on the November ballot, proponent supporters are upset about Sen. Bernie Sanders’ opposition to the Philadelphia soda tax measure because it is a regressive tax being used against them. Lots of taxes are regressive, that doesn’t necessarily make them bad though.

The soda tax, like a cigarette tax or a gas tax, is a user tax that can affect behavior, unlike the sales tax, also regressive, but too broad-based to have an effect on consumer choice. Fortunately, the Philadelphia City Council saw through Sanders’ shallow argument and approved the 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages last June. Hopefully, voters in San Francisco and Oakland will do the same on Nov. 8.

Irvin Dawid, Burlingame

Powerful reminders

Regarding “But, Kap — the flag is on your side” (Aug. 30): Thank you, Colin Kaepernick for the turmoil you have created, forcing people to do some thinking who otherwise would not. All the power to you, and thank you to John Diaz for reminding us of those heroes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and the NBA players who showed up wearing hoodies in support of Trayvon Martin. Kaepernick’s action is an affront to all those who have fought to protect American values?

Didn’t I just read that the U.S. increased its military presence in Nigeria to protect the “interests” of those two American bastions, ExxonMobile and Chevron? How much have those two multinationals not paid in taxes to support their American “values?” Nothing much has changed, has it, since the 1968 Olympics and Smith’s and Carlos’ actions? Oh, sorry, forgot, now we have a black president.

David Ainley, Sausalito

Old needle method

Before the EpiPen became available, parents of children with severe allergies used a narrow syringe with a No. 25-gauge needle attached, together with a vial of Epinephrine. Even today, the cost of that option would be $5 to $10. One opened the syringe packet and drew up the liquid in the vial, taking 15 seconds at most. Let’s go back to the old method and put Mylan out of the business of immoral pricing.

Val Giles, Castro Valley

Kaepernick’s decision

The reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit during the National Anthem is pretty easy to understand. White people don’t like it when black people point out things. That’s why the best line that Donald Trump has come up with in his campaign is related to the attempt to woo black voters: “What have you got to lose?”

Rocky Hill, Denver

Weiner conspiracy

I think Anthony Weiner is successfully pulling off a spectacular manipulation of the American public for his own financial gain. Everyone says how could he again do his online sexting after public disclosure of his kinky behavior forced him to lose so much including separation from his wife a year ago?

The other astonishing thing is that he allowed filmmakers intimate access to make a documentary about his private life with his wife, Huma Abedin, during his disgraced downfall. Some reports said this public shaming exposed his wife to incredibly cruel and emotional abuse. I’m sure his vanity was well exalted when he saw his name “Weiner” on movie theater marquees since May. And I’m guessing that his deal with the producers includes him getting a share of the revenues. So I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the DVD of his film was released on Aug. 23, and now his photo and name are splashed across the news as another sensational scandal. It didn’t take much for him to figure out that his smartphone could generate enormous free publicity at the same time his DVD is for sale.

Ralph Harris, San Francisco

Parallel sexual assault case

As we dissect the light sentence that Judge Aaron Persky gave rapist Brock Turner, it would be prudent to recall a parallel case that occurred here years ago. In 1969, San Francisco Judge Bernard Glickfeld gave William Morris, a 22-year-old man, only 52 weekends in jail for the rape of a young woman near a bus stop. Glickfeld said he handed down the light sentence in part because Morris had no prior police record.

He received so many death threats, that his home was put under police protection. One armed citizen actually tried to break into his house. The sentence was never amended. I knew both the rapist and the victim. I had lived next door to Morris for several years, and I had later worked with the young woman while in college. As a result, I followed the case closely, and today I find the level of vitriol directed against both judges to be about the same. One might have thought things would have changed in nearly 50 years in terms of judicial judgment in rape cases and responses against that judgment. But, so it would appear by looking at these two cases, maybe not so much, after all.

John Watson, Sunnyvale

IPhone’s folly

Regarding “IPhone announcement likely next week” (Daily Briefing, Aug. 30): I am so so excited about the new iPhone. No doubt, it will come with a plethora of new ways to isolate human beings from reality. David Posner, Napa

Australia’s water markets

Regarding “Australia’s water markets should be model for California” (Open Forum, Aug. 26): K. Lloyd Billingsley argues for increased use of water markets, particularly for groundwater. Billingsley’s arguments fail to recognize a number of key truths. We note just three.

First, markets are no panacea. They do not create new sources of water any more than trials do. California law prohibits water transfers that injure other legal users of water: You can’t sell something you don’t own.

Second, groundwater management presents particular challenges, as we have written elsewhere. California is actively grappling with these challenges in innovative ways, and glossing over their complexities could impede solutions. If markets are implemented without clear goals, rules, and oversight, they run real risks of unintended consequences that could outweigh the efficiency gains they promise.

Third, Australia’s successes with markets have occurred in a context that differs in crucial geographic, legal, and institutional ways. Furthermore, Australian water trades don’t occur in a regulatory vacuum. Instead, they must comply with an extensive system of trading rules and restrictions.

While market mechanisms may offer potential solutions for natural resource challenges, market fundamentalism can be more dangerous than the deficiencies it promises to remedy. The authors are, respectively, Director Michael Kiparsky and Research Fellow Nell Green Nylen at the Wheeler Water Institute at UC Berkeley School of Law and members of the UC Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative.

Michael Kiparsky Ph.D., Berkeley