Letters
Americans may not want - but do need - low-paying jobs
Regarding the March 10 article "Why the new jobs go to immigrants": Why do experts assume that because certain jobs pay little, Americans don't want them?
Our college-aged daughter has a roommate who must work her way through college. Yet her efforts to find work in a New Mexico town near the Mexican border have been repeatedly snubbed by local employers, some of whom brazenly tell her they only hire illegal immigrants.
This young woman's future - and, I suspect, the futures of many other young Americans who must work their way through college - is in peril not because they won't do a low-paying job, but because they aren't given a chance to do it. More to the point, just how low-paying would these jobs be if the lower end of the job market weren't flooded by illegal immigrant labor?
Kathleene Parker
Rio Rancho, N.M.
Bravo to the Monitor for the March 10 article "Bankruptcy terms toughen" that did not include the usual canard that the vast majority of bankruptcies are caused by personal irresponsibility. Most other articles I've read devoted substantial space to the banking industry's attacks on the personal responsibility of Americans and didn't bother to mention the corporate irresponsibility that allows so many Americans to get so far over their heads with credit.
Additionally, healthcare costs and the loss of a job (along with divorce, which was not mentioned) are overwhelming factors that force decent Americans into bankruptcy. Instead of passing a law to address the small minority of debtors who "game the system," Congress would - if it really wanted to significantly curtail bankruptcy filings in a fair way - take strong action to provide healthcare coverage to all Americans.
Your coverage was balanced. Unfortunately, the new bankruptcy law is not.
Michael G. Brautigam
Cincinnati, Ohio
The answer to the question posed by the March 14 article "As corporate taxes shrink, who pays?" must be: "We the people." I was surprised to read that economists oppose corporate taxation on the grounds that "a company is actually just a legal paper entity, not a person." I agree completely, but corporate lawyers have spent the better part of the last century trying to ensure that companies are granted the same rights as people under the Constitution. They can't have it both ways. If corporations want to claim the rights granted to all people, they should also accept the responsibilities - including taxation.
Travis Metcalfe
Boulder, Colo.
I thoroughly agree with William Ecenbarger's March 11 Opinion piece, "Libraries are an essential service, too." The same can be said of school libraries. With cutbacks and reductions occurring in our schools all too often, it seems that one of the first programs to go is the school library.
Marie Williams
Parkman, Ohio
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