runners up for Letter of the Day

Looking good where it counts

It's time to add the section "Personal Appearance" to my resume. The April 8 article, " It Pays to be Good-Looking, Fed Analysis Shows," states that my chances of a pay raise increase if I am above-average looking.

My worth as an employee should not rest on whether I am "tall, slender and attractive." As I work at my job, it is my education that gets the job done, not my mascara.

-Hannah Hacker,
Des Moines.

What really needs fixing

Richard Doak is correct in his April 5 column, "Let's Fix Something That Actually Needs It." Health care in this country is in a terrible crisis, and it must be dealt with. But the president ignores it and travels the country to frighten you into believing that we have an emergency with Social Security.

The truth is Social Security needs to be tweaked. We have adjusted it in the past, and we will have to adjust it again. Taking money out of the trust fund to set up private accounts will cause an emergency with Social Security funding levels.

How to fix it? Remove the cap on income subject to Social Security taxes - currently at $90,000. Let those who earn millions per year pay on all their income. They can painlessly afford it and the system will be solvent for decades.

Social Security is not a retirement investment fund, and it never was. It is insurance against abject poverty for our elderly, widows, orphans and disabled.

-JoAnn Hardy,
Mason City.

Who won?

In the last presidential election, Republicans said if voters elected John Kerry gasoline prices would go up. Did Kerry win?

-D. A. Benda,
Toledo.

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