The Libyan breakthrough, if it really is one, occurred against the backdrop of two U.S. presidents who demonstrated that they meant what they said -- Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. I hope we continue next year to have a president who deals with foreign threats appropriately.
Charles Clough
Bel Air
Productivity gains don't aid everyone
My economic knowledge and skills are minimal. Keeping my checkbook balanced is a major feat, and making sense of the nomenclature and concepts bandied about by economists on the left and right is most daunting.
One term does seem to have face validity: productivity. It makes sense that as productivity increases the economy grows, as more widgets can be produced per worker per hour.
However, only the owner of the widget factory will earn more money. Fewer workers will be needed, and they will be stressed to produce more and more ("The recession is over -- and that's bad news to tax-cut foes," Opinion * Commentary, Dec. 24).
The 9.4 percent growth in productivity during the third quarter of 2003 needs to be taken with more than a grain of salt.
David Weinstock
Lutherville
Helping the jobless is right thing to do
I have a simple answer to a recent letter's question about unemployment benefits: "Why not let the taxpayers keep the money and spend it and eliminate the middleman?" ("Let the taxpayers keep their money," letters, Dec. 25).
The answer is: because someday the unemployed person could be you.
It's about time we look ourselves in the face and acknowledge that we have allowed greed, which used to be a sin, to replace the Golden Rule as the standard of behavior and test of conscience.
Ellen Robbins
Baltimore
