Questions, comments and accolades
TESS VIGELAND: Actually, you do write us. And today, we feature some highlights from those e-mails and letters and calls. First, Jessica Posey wrote in from Nevada, Calif. Again, in last week’s mailbag, we answered his question about why there weren’t photos on our Web page of Chris Farrell and Rico Gagliano. We said, hey, there are photos. Well, Jesse found Chris, but he looked for 15 minutes and couldn’t find Rico. So, I looked for 20 minutes and I couldn’t find Rico. We’ve fixed that.
Amber Patterson listens to us in Bozeman, Montana. And she wrote in to comment on our interview with Leslie Bennetts. Leslie is the author of “The Feminine Mistake,” a book that argues women put their financial lives at risk when they leave the workforce to raise children.
AMBER:
I strongly disagree with Ms. Bennetts’ view and feel that too much emphasis in our society is placed on money and not enough on family. It’s very important to me that I am present when all my children lose all their teeth. I did not have children so that someone else could raise them. Ms. Bennetts needs to remember that many mothers today choose to stay home because it is the most important job in the world. Money is money.
VIGELAND: Another listener wrote in to accuse our own Chris Farrell of drinking too much government Kool-Aid. Last week, Chris and I debated the merits of so-called core inflation figures, which strip out the costs of food and energy.
Steven Galperin hears us in Litchfield, N.H. He writes, the CPI has reached the point of having no relevance in a normal person’s life. My majority expenses, in order, are housing, food and energy. The fact that the prices of the bottom 10 percent of my expenses have not changed does not fix the problem that my wages have stagnated. Your program is starting to appear more and more like a platform for the uber rich to tell us about how great the status quo is.
And finally, Anita Foose writes in from Murdo, S.D. about our story a couple of weeks back on hypermiling. Hypermilers do whatever they have to to go as far as they can on a tank of gas, including drafting behind semi-trucks.
ANITA: Not only are some of these actions illegal, as noted by the trooper on your segment, but they are illegal because they can get people killed or seriously injured. I am dismayed by your apparent endorsement of the reckless disregard for the safety of others to save a buck.
VIGELAND:
We’ll gladly take your comments, compliments, complaints, avoid the curses, if you can. Go to Marketplace.org and click on contact.
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