Letters
Are jobs an effective method of keeping score?
Regarding the article "Jobs, pay, and the score so far" in the July 28 edition: Why can't we see the "half-full picture"? I think we need to focus more on the fact that there have been more jobs created, not the fact that these jobs may not be white-collar jobs. Although people want to improve their economic situation, many are just happy to have work and not have to depend on someone else for their survival and well-being.
I think President Bush is doing a good job of helping America create more employment. He understands that by giving tax money back to the private sector, jobs will be created more efficiently than if the government took the money and created job programs. We can't expect Mr. Bush to be able to employ every American in just four short years.
Heather Bake
Rexburg, Idaho
One point not addressed in your article: the impact that rising energy prices have had on disposable income. I would argue that my family's tax-cut money has ended up in the pockets of oil and other energy companies. In my view, the Bush administration has responsibility for this issue due to its foreign policy, especially its failures in the Middle East, as well as its lack of vision for the future. I believe the first $100 billion tax cut should have been spent to convert our economy to alternative energy sources, with an eye on reducing our dependence on foreign oil, thereby reducing world demand and positively affecting prices.
Vince Ozier
Lima, Ohio
Your article reported numbers and opinions about jobs and wages in America. Unfortunately, readers cannot always deduce, from the numbers and opinions reported, the extent of income (and wealth) inequality in America. Nor can we do that from the numbers and opinions cited in many other reports about tax cuts, deregulations, CEO pay, job losses to low-wage states and nations, etc.
The extent of income inequality can be presented. The numbers are in reports called, "Statistics of Income: Individual Tax Returns." Newspapers present stock market charts every day. They can do the same with income-distribution charts.
Robert Massey
Salem, Wis.
I was deeply moved by Robert Hosokawa's July 28 Opinion piece, "We knew we weren't the enemy." It became clear to me that, although this gentle man and thousands of other nisei were treated very badly by our government early in World War II, enough common sense and human kindness existed within our society to mitigate, and eventually put right, this sad chapter in our country's history.
The coming years will severely test us as a people, requiring fundamental changes in the way we view our place in the world. God willing, in the future, we will be guided by the example and spirit of people like Mr. Hosokawa to get us through these times.
Frederick G. Leeman
Seabrook, N.H.
Few Americans know of the internment of German-Americans (such as myself) and Italian-Americans during World War II, and of the Alien Registration Act of 1942, that required all permanent resident aliens ages 14 and older to register as "Alien Enemies," and that such persons were deprived of certain civil liberties and freedoms.
This affected some 600,000 Italian-Americans and 300,000 German-Americans. Furthermore, almost 11,000 German-Americans were interned, many for as long as three years after the war in Europe had ended.
Arthur D. Jacobs
Tempe, Ariz.
Major, USAF Retired
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