❗Help close the gap: We still need to raise $40,000 by the end of March. Donate now

Letters: Lowering the deficit, Facebook’s "Like" button

Marketplace Staff Oct 12, 2010
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Letters: Lowering the deficit, Facebook’s "Like" button

Marketplace Staff Oct 12, 2010
HTML EMBED:
COPY

TEXT OF STORY

Kai Ryssdal: I don’t know what happened, but you were an unusually communicative bunch last week.

Our story about New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new idea for food stamps was popular with many of you. He wants to limit the things people can buy with food stamps, specifically sugary drinks — Cokes and Pepsis and all that.

This from Michael Chen of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, echoes what a lot of you said.

Michael Chen: As a physician, I was so grateful for this news report. It’s insanity that we subsidize the foods and drinks that are directly affecting the decline of our health as a nation. I personally hope this experiment works.

New York Times economic columnist David Leonhardt was on the broadcast yesterday offering four ways to reduce the deficit: Cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut military spending or raise taxes.

David Rigby of North Carolina chose all of the above. “Really,” he writes, “the answer is obvious — we have to do all four.”

We’ve been doing a lot of coverage of the foreign exchange markets the past week or so, about how pretty much every country out there wants their currency to be a little bit weaker to help boost exports and economic growth.

Nicholas Kyriazi from Pittsburgh, Penn., said our stories totally miss the point.

Nicholas Kyriazi: Until one hour of unskilled labor is worth the same in every country, we will all suffer the consequences of such artificial valuations controlled by the central banks.

On the topic of missing the point, my comments yesterday about external link! texting while driving irked some of you. Specifically, this part:

Ryssdal: Here we go. So this is a problem, because by now, I’ve wrecked my car. If I’m driving with this thing, I’d have wrapped it around the telephone pole.

David Dartley wrote to say, “Who cares about your car? You’ve just as likely injured or killed an innocent person.” “New rule,” he says. “If you want to text while driving, Kai and everyone else, unbuckle your seatbelts first.”

On now to other hazardous — although not necessarily fatal — behavior: The Facebook “like” button. Our story on it last week reminded people that every time you click on it, you send your personal preferences directly to advertisers. Nifty, no?

No, says Steve Tyahla, a reformed one-time Facebook user from Berkeley, Calif.

Steve Tyahla: I heard yet another reason why I’m glad I killed my Facebook account. The last thing I ever want to do is to do a legitimate search on a topic only to have a skewed by what “like its” I clicked. I predict though — FlitterBookTube revolt within five years.

Just in case you missed it, that was a FlitterBookTube revolt within five years.

Maybe, who knows? But please, tell us what you know. You can write to us through our website.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.