Editorials / Opinion

On Monday, Boeing announced a new $12 billion buyout of their stock after just completing a $6 billion buyback of stock last year. This makes shareholders wealthier while not producing a single new job. Boeing is able to do this thanks to a tax system that has increasingly favored corporations over individuals. Boeing is a good…

What is needed for STEM in Seattle is for the city and its citizens to insist that we focus first on nurturing and developing the interests and enthusiasm of our own kids in STEM [“What keeps girls from studying physics and STEM,” Opinion, Sept. 14]. At the same time, we need policies designed…

Times editorial columnist Erik Smith’s argues “The state didn’t give Boeing any money” [“The Boeing giveaway that wasn’t,” Opinion, July 31].  It may be true that no checks were written, but corporate tax avoidance shifts burdens for supporting infrastructure and services from Boeing to people already burdened with the most regressive tax policy…

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney states that he will not retire when he turns 65 next month, even though it is Boeing company policy [“Boeing profit rises, but tanker program worries analysts,” Business/Technology, July 23]. He then goes on to state that, “The heart will still be beating, the employees will still be cowering, I’ll…

The Seattle Times editorial “Extend data center tax breaks” [Opinion, May 19) expresses support for tax breaks to Microsoft and Boeing. It implies that wage earners, not shareholders, should pay the costs of government. As you point out, our Legislature and governor granted Boeing an $8.7 billion tax break for fear Boeing would abandon its…

Dominic Gates’ article “Big bucks in moving Boeing engineers” [Business/Technology, April 26] is another brick in the demise of Boeing in the Pacific Northwest. In the 1970s and 1980s, the auto industry left the Detroit area to lower-cost states in the U.S. and to low-wage countries. While it may have taken decades for Detroit…

Boeing management’s “engineering work transfer” plans will leave the Puget Sound with an abundance of unused, highly skilled, senior engineering talent [“Boeing CEO defends shifting engineering jobs,” Business/Technology, April 23]. With our concentration of venture dollars, and with the many entrepreneurial leaders spun from our multi-faceted technology economy, it seems only logical that some…

Defense of past failures seems to be Boeing’s mantra these days [“Boeing CEO defends shifting engineering jobs,” Business/Technology, April 23]. Boeing success is a result of a dedicated and highly qualified workforce of talented engineers and assembly workers. Yet, the remotely located “senior management” in Chicago gloss over a number of their mistakes: a three year…

Corrected version Boeing’s Groundhog Day is coming again [“Boeing managers say transfer of engineer jobs damaging talent, morale,” Business/Technology, April 15]. Remember all the grandiose expectations when Boeing production was moved to South Carolina? Low wages, but high quality to continue. Several years later: many delays, poor quality, canceled contracts and Boeing is still struggling…

I read with dismay and deep anger in The Seattle Times that Boeing will pull 1000 engineering jobs out of our state [“Boeing moving 1,000 more engineering jobs to California,” Business/Technology, April 10]. As a retired public-school teacher, this hurts me deeply in two ways. First, my state Legislature agreed to grant Boeing almost 9…