Alaskans pay higher prices for fuel, airfare, property taxes and many other personal expenses than most Americans. Our state is one of the most profitable and stable economies in the union.

Airline companies, energy providers and government agencies continue to gouge the Alaskan people with pricing that is not in line with any sense of fair play.

All of us who have come here to live have the expectation that we are part of a bold experiment and should be promoted and not preyed upon.

Alaska is a land for the dreamer, artist, inventor, business man and free thinker. These ideals are stifled by the exorbitant cost of living here.

A reasonable profit is to be expected but many of our costs are unreasonable. The answer we have received is that the prices are set by what the market will bear and this is the American way in a free market system.

I love Alaska and ask the free market to promote the growth of our state by re-evaluating the cost that is imposed upon its citizens. Prosperity is based upon the happiness of its population. The cheaper things are the more people will buy.

Jim Mikesell