Letters and Reaction

Spending Denialists and the Fiscal Illusion

In "Spending Denialists and the Fiscal Illusion" (March) Matt Welch takes on Republican House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and the fiscal cliff deal. Speaker Boehner's follow-up extension of the debt limit for three more months is just kicking the can down the road. Everyone needs to do their fair share in bringing the budget deficit under control. It is time for government to destroy its own credit cards.

Mismanagement of our economy may also end our reign as the world's superpower as we become the world's super debtor nation. Republicans must offer a choice not an echo to President Barack Obama and the Democrats' status quo of trillions in additional debt and uncontrolled spending.

Larry Penner

Great Neck, NY

Moneyball in the Workplace

Greg Beato's article "Moneyball in the Workplace" (March) says: "as the Moneyballization of the workplace proceeds…we'll no longer be able to hide our career .290 on-base percentage with an artfully worded resume."

Baseball is a game with fixed rules that readily lends itself to statistical analysis. But many jobs are nothing like that. I'm a computer programmer in a small company; for me, things are always changing and unique. I can't compare my performance on "project X" to the league average, because I'm the only person in the world who's worked on "project X." 

I predict hiring managers will embrace worker statistics like an all-candy diet, to the frustration of those who don't fit the mold. Transparency is good. Oversimplification is bad.

Kevin Sterns

San Jose, CA

via email 

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"Raising taxes on the rich isn't about revenue. It's about fairness. I mean, we all know that the rich don't pay their fair share. How could they? They're rich. If they paid their fair share then they wouldn't be rich, now, would they? So taxes must be raised on them until they are no longer rich. Only then will they have paid their fair share. If doing this destroys the economy and makes everyone poor, so be it. It is fairer that everyone be poor than there be rich people to envy."

—reason.com commenter "sarcasmic" in response to "Soaking the Rich" (March)

"There are more people who smoke weed today than there were back when I was a teenager, when dinosaurs were still walking around. It's just that they are not as open about it because they like their dogs."

—reason.com commenter "Hyperiod" in response to "Smoking Pot and Tying the Knot" (March)

"After struggling to understand Twitter (and smartphones in general), I now know what my grandmother felt like trying to use the remote control for the TV."

—reason.com commenter "JeremyR" in response to "Twitter: Free Speech in 140 Characters" (March)