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Letters: Your opinions of the show
Mailbag
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I was a little surprised to hear misinformation on one of your reports about health care last night. Tess Vigeland stated that there are almost 50-million uninsured Americans. She is using an inaccurate number that President Obama and Speaker Pelosi also use and it's wrong. The only authoritative source for this number is the Census Bureau which, in their latest report, said there are 47-million uninsured in America - OF WHICH 9-million are aliens - legal and illegal. So to use an "almost 50-million" figure is inaccurate I'm assuming Ms. Vigeland will make some kind of correction once she goes to the primary source of the Census Bureau.
Here's the report - key page is page 29 - http://www.census.gov/prod/ 2006pubs/p60-231.pdf
In regard to your story about college students and finances, I wanted to share what I did with for my daughter. After a semester of her calling home about needing money for books, etc., I finally gave her a credit card on my account, with strict rules about getting permission to charge something. She was quite responsible, so this arrangement not only helped her to fend off tempting credit card offers ("I already have a credit card"), but it helped her to establish credit. Of course, she was receiving a monthly allowance for personal use, so that her credit card use was for essential purchases. For the most part. She's 24 now, and just the other day I was reading an email written during her sophomore year which read, "Sorry about the IHOP charge." Obviously a child's education about money should begin long before she starts college.
In regard to your story about college students and finances, I wanted to share what I did with for my daughter. After a semester of her calling home about needing money for books, etc., I finally gave her a credit card on my account, with strict rules about getting permission to charge something. She was quite responsible, so this arrangement not only helped her to fend off tempting credit card offers ("I already have a credit card"), but it helped her to establish credit. Of course, she was receiving a monthly allowance for personal use, so that her credit card use for essential purchases. For the most part. She's 24 now, and just the other day I was reading an email written during her sophomore year which read, "Sorry about the IHOP charge." Obviously a child's education about money should begin long before she starts college.
Regarding your report on arbitration yesterday -
You stated that consumers lose 90+% of arbitration disputes. You neglected to point out that that number comes from a study dealing with credit card collection matters. Consumers lose those cases at about the same rate in court. Should we abolish the courts, as well? Several studies that have examined the arbitration of disputes other than collections have shown that consumers fare pretty well in arbitration proceedings, and that most consumers who have gone through those arbitration proceedings view their experiences positively. I was disappointed that you bought the numbers trumpeted by the consumer advocates without doing your homework. The story also stated that two companies had been driven out of the arbitration business by the MN AG. If that reference was to NAF and AAA, it is accurate as to the NAF, but not as to the AAA, which announced that it would no longer conduct consumer COLLECTION matters. The AAA is evidently continuing to conduct non-collection arbitration proceedings.
