Disney decision affects more than just 2,000 jobs

Thanks to the anti-business and anti-free speech actions by Gov. DeSantis and the Republican Legislature of Florida and Orlando specifically, the area just lost 10,000 new jobs in the Lake Nona area. You say no, it was “only” 2,000 jobs. When I went to college at USF, I took a number of courses in Economics. The one thing I remembered was that there is a multiplier effect on the creation of wealth. For every $1 spent it creates $5 of spending.

Simply put, the 2,000 good-paying jobs Disney was going to create in Lake Nona would create 10,000 community jobs to support those 2,000 new jobs. Two thousand jobs mean 2,000 families and approximately 6,000 people. Two thousand new homes or apartments to be rented and built that will not happen. How many construction workers, suppliers, trucking companies, gas stations, coffee shops, restaurants and food stores will not be hiring people? Who would have cut their grass, sold them cars, fixed their cars, or sold them and repaired appliances? The list goes on and on.

Do you ever wonder why McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s all build stores next to each other? It is because they want potential customers to come into the area and each knows they will get their share of the business. With Disney as a magnet, how many more companies would have moved to the area to take advantage of the labor pool, services, new home development etc.? The real loss to Florida after DeSantis is gone cannot be calculated. How can this have happened? More importantly, what can we do to reverse this debacle and convince Disney to invest in us?

Alan M. Marder Bradenton

Culture wars are easier to fight than real problems

The culture wars have cost this country and especially this state millions of dollars. I say enough is enough. Whatever happened to kitchen-table issues? Health care; affordable housing; education — not culture-war education, but real education; feeding the hungry, especially children when they no longer have school lunches; tolerating those who are different than we are; repairing the damage from storms; addressing property insurance, etc. These are more difficult issues to address, so the Legislature and the governor picked the easy stuff — like pointing their fingers and disparaging others. Shame on them and shame on us for allowing this to continue unchecked.

Barbara Hill Eustis

MAGA question: When was America great?

When was America great?

When discrimination and segregation for non-white people was the norm and white privilege prevailed?

When non-heterosexuals had to stay in the closet?

When career choices and opportunities for job advances for women were very limited?

When environmental regulations were non-existing or very weak, and climate change was not in our vocabulary?

Is that when America was great? Is that the America we want to return to?

Radames Lamenza Orlando