Don't trash those pay phones just yet.(News)

Don't trash those pay phones just yet

Another example of the need for redundancy in our nations' communication network is the recent East Coast blizzard.

Since 9/11 every man, woman and child has been led to believe that a cell phone is the answer to keeping us safe in an emergency. Even though cell phones did not work during this crisis. Again, when the bridge collapsed over the Mississippi, the cell phone could not deliver.

When the blizzard hit and thousands were stranded in airports all over the East Coast, the cell towers could not handle the overwhelming number of calls because they're not designed to. Why then would pay phones be looked upon as no longer necessary?

That's like saying flying is better, so get rid of trains and cars, or TV and the Internet is what people want so get rid of newspapers and radio. Some things remain essential to our society even though they may no longer seem cool or cutting edge; just ask the older people.

Mike Simon

Glen Ellyn

Our soldiers should start a union

We now have seen political correctness in picking heroes. At the site of the twin towers, we had firefighters and police, city workers and many people off the street perform extraordinary feats.

Except for the civilian folks, the others have insurance to cover injuries, lost wages, death insurance, and can go on paid disability for an extended time. They can also retire early with a very fair retirement package. Another words, these people have not suffered any monetary loss for their valiant efforts. What they are seeking is a reward on top of everything else. Perhaps it would be fair if all heroes were treated the same by our Congress. What about the valiant deeds being done every day in Iraq, or Afghanistan or all over the world?

Soldiers are coming back from these battles, missing limbs, with physiological problems; where are their rewards? Their reward is a first-class prosthesis, three squares a day and a few bucks every month. Our nation wants a first-class volunteer army and pays them second class wages -- with no "rewards." Every so often a president will use a few of these heroes for a dog-and-pony show to convey the "gratitude" of the people. So there must be two different kind of heroes; the union heroes and the grunts.

Perhaps the soldiers (grunts) need to organize into a union to make sure they get in on the "rewards" gravy train.

D.O. Lipensky

Wheaton

Illinois is the new California

Under left-leaning Gov. Quinn, who was voted lieutenant governor before his recent election, Illinois is now among the top 10 biggest government default risks in the world, behind not only California, but also Kazakhstan and Botswana, for example.

Per CMA Datavision, credit defaults swaps recently were $309,100 per $10 million in debt. This is consonant with what happened in socialist California, and where, after Democrat Gray Davis was elected in 1999, he turned what was then the sixth-largest economy in the world, with a $12 billion surplus, into a state that had more red ink than all the other 49 states combined at the time.

Unfortunately, we are almost all "California" now -- particularly Illinois. The California socialist experiment has always taken every single state or country that has ever tried it into poverty, and of course it will not be the Learjet liberals in Hollywood who suffer, nor any of the other politically correct rich (think Martha's Vineyard on the other coast), but rather those least positioned to protect themselves, while at the same destroying the business and entrepreneurial environment whereby "regular folk" can work their way up the ladder.

Compassion? As Dr. Arthur Brooks has written, if liberals even gave blood at the rate of conservatives, there would be approximately 50 percent more blood available to hospitals. People can do a thousand times more, with a million times more love, for 1 percent of the money, than the government can even think of doing do with its Department of Motor Vehicles-type "compassion."

Lessen the inefficient nanny state and leave us our money so we can help others directly.

Jim Vanne

Aurora

Cul-de-sacs: Second-class citizens

The city of Naperville has between 1,100 and 1,200 cul-de-sacs, as told to me by an employee of the public works department. If you average 10 houses per cul-de-sac, a rough estimate is they make up over 20 percent of the population.

In the winter, the city treats these cul-de-sac residents as second-class citizens. The city plows them last -- after all other streets -- assuming they actually remember to plow them at all. Over the Christmas weekend, after snow falling both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the city decided to not plow the cul-de-sacs at all.

Houses on cul-de-sacs generally sell for more than houses on standard streets, so the average taxes paid are higher, yet the city provides second-class service to these homes in the winter.

I moved to Naperville from a suburb of Minneapolis. I lived in two different homes on cul-de-sacs. I was plowed out every morning before I left for work. The cul-de-sacs were treated as any other street. Why do we get such unacceptable service from the city of Naperville? If you agree, please write our city manager and let him know how unacceptable it is to be treated as second-class homeowners.

Steve Odden

Naperville

Study raw numbers, economics, history

David Marzahl's argument in a Jan. 3 Fence Post letter simply does not hold water.

In the six quarters before the 2003 Bush tax cuts, the GDP grew at an annual rate of only 1.7 percent and 267,000 jobs were lost. In the six quarters after the cuts, it grew at a rate of 4.1 percent and 307,000 jobs were added.

The top 20 percent of earners pay about 70 percent of income taxes, whereas the bottom 20 percent pay an average of 0 percent (some actually get "refunds" for taxes they haven't even paid).

Mr. Marzahl says that we cannot afford to "subsidize" the wealthy while cutting spending on programs that "lift people out of poverty and thereby expand job opportunities." I infer that the programs he refers to are unemployment-related benefits.

First of all, tax cuts are not subsidies. "Subsidy" is a blatantly false and misleading label. A subsidy is essentially a reward or a handout. A tax cut is taking less of what someone rightfully earned. They have nothing in common.

Second, unemployment benefits do not expand job opportunities. Modest unemployment benefits are useful, but in extended or increased amounts, they reward economic non-production. Reducing taxes for the wealthy -- who are the main job providers -- promotes productive economic behavior -- i.e. new hiring, research and development and entrepreneurship. Daily Herald readers, please don't buy into the emotional hype. Please, do your own research. Study the raw numbers. Study economics. Most of all, study history. We are in danger of repeating it.

Tyler Benjamin

West Chicago