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Dear first-year teacher:

I have been in your shoes. What you are doing is hard, and you will often feel lost, but know that what you do each day matters ("Why is Minnesota short on teachers?" Opinion Exchange, Aug. 27). On those days when the lesson doesn't work and you said the wrong thing to a student, remember the next day the students will be back and you will get to try again. You might have a conversation with that student to whom you said the wrong thing, and both of you will learn something.

Believe me, your biggest exasperations will come from outside your classroom. Society, administrators and even well-meaning friends will try to advise you on how to do your job. I am afraid these interruptions will be even worse for you than they were for me, so be reticent and trust your gut. Get to know your students and you will know what is best for them. Then proceed with all the possibilities you can create in your time together.

Close the door and make your classroom a sanctuary. If you take your students seriously, and if you believe in them, they will trust you. My epiphany a few years in was that equally important as filling students with knowledge and skills was to give them room to explore who they want to become. The more I focused on the amazing human beings in front of me, the more it mattered, and the more we learned together.

So you don't think this is just an optimistic pep talk, I will tell you I wanted to quit many times. I once went as far as writing a letter of resignation. But before I submitted it I called a good friend and expert listener and she helped me realize despite outside conflicts, I could not think of anything that mattered more to me than my classroom of students. I stayed for 31 years.

Peggy Ludtke, Stillwater

In the Aug. 31 letter "I see Trump's logic," the writer responded to the commentary "An economist's take on Trump's 'ring around the collar' idea" and argued that a universal 10% tariff on imports would result in increased employment and profits for American companies. I believe this is a flawed extrapolation and an example of a simplistic analysis.

The argument as put forward is that if a product being tariffed is also made in the United States, people will then buy the locally made product. This fails on several levels.

First, it assumes that the item made is simple enough to require no components from overseas. That is a small inventory. Any item made with components being imported, for example, electronic components, plastic housings and dyes, will see a price increase because the components will have a price increase.

Second, it assumes that the American company will not raise prices to reap the benefit of the import's price increase. We see this happen every time a new drug enters the market. Instead of the competitors reducing price to increase sales, they increase price to match the new product. And another feature of American companies is that they like to increase profits without increasing expenses, in this case, the cost of hiring more employees. Why increase head-count when you can simply demand more productivity?

The reality is that the candidate who proposed the "ring around the collar" is even less knowledgeable about global economics than either the letter writer or myself. He has frequently given simplistic, easily-digested solutions to complex problems and then hand-waved away the problems. The American export agriculture sector is still recovering from the tariffs imposed six years ago, and the American people are still paying to support that sector. The letter writer's theorized growth in the U.S. economy is very unlikely to happen or at the very best would take years to arrive.

Daniel Beckfield, New Brighton

After reading the front-page article "Feds set first 10 drugs for price talks" (Aug. 30), it caused me to reflect on my own prescription medication expenses. I am retired, and retained my private health insurance plan and use that instead of Medicare. I pay plenty for my health insurance, but I'm still very grateful for it when I read articles like this. Among several medications, I take both Januvia and Jardiance. When I get my 90-day refills, I see the retail value for both on the refill slips. It is $2,084.85 for Januvia and $2,259.78 for Jardiance! I pay a greatly reduced amount (thank goodness).

The point I want to make is this: Years ago, a very helpful pharmacist made me aware of a program Merck has for people with private insurance. After people enrolled, it covered up to $150 per prescription and left the insured person with only $5 to pay per refill. Now, each case would be different, but in my case it saves me around $50 per refill or around $400 per year. If the pharmacist wouldn't have told me about this, I would have had no idea. The fact that these "secret" coupons exist and probably very few people know about them is just one more reason Big Pharma has such a bad reputation. My heart goes out to those covered by Medicare only. But, if you do have private health insurance, check on the coupons.

Scott Cumberland, Bloomington

I think Sen. Amy Klobuchar is correct when she says "the era of Big Pharma calling the shots … is coming to an end" ("Efforts to address prescription drug costs are finally taking hold," Opinion Exchange, Aug. 24). I would love to see the senator and her colleagues take on the behemoth in our own backyard, UnitedHealth Group and its pharmacy benefit management company, OptumRx.

While everyone has been distracted with Big Pharma, Big Insurance has been consolidating its stranglehold on our health care system. UnitedHealth is using its pharmacy benefit management company, OptumRx, to drive up patient costs and generating record breaking profits. In fact, according to 2022 financial statements from UnitedHealth Group, more than half of its 2022 profits came from OptumRx.

Across the country attorneys general have been filing suits against these prescription drug middlemen alleging they overcharged Medicaid programs and illegally colluded to increase drug prices. UnitedHealth is much more than just insurance or just pharmacy benefit manager. According to a recent article in the American Prospect, UnitedHealth Group is more than just an insurance company, but also has business lines into physician practices, claims processing and information technology, to list a few.

If our elected officials are serious about lowering costs for patients, they should be looking at Big Insurance next.