Uncle Sam Wants You to Open Your Wallet

'I Want YOU to Start Spending!': Readers were skeptical of the March 23 cover recommendation that spending more would improve the economy. Easier said than done, many wrote. One reader, whose husband's salary was cut, said spending more isn't an option right now. "I hope your words reach those who bring in more than they need to pay their bills." Others cited the time-honored maxim of living within your means. And if America's economic health hinges on "spending the last 5 percent of my hard-earned money," one wrote, "then we have a big problem."

On 'America's Unemployed Olympic Hero': "Jason Lezak's moment of transcendent performance [at the Beijing Olympics] … brought more glory and riches to his teammate Michael Phelps than to himself. His is a story of hard work, perseverance and maturity."
Gary Tilles
Newtown Square, Pa.

Here's to Responsible Spending
Daniel Gross raises important issues in "Stop Saving Now!" (March 23). My family is currently hoarding cash because of the extreme uncertainty about how the administration will manage the drastic social-spending increases and continued bailout of corporations that have managed to work themselves into insolvency—all without significantly raising our taxes. Until this is clear, we and many of our friends are spending only for necessities.
David Chavoustie
Charlotte, N.C.

We were told that we had to respect the wisdom of the market when our jobs were shipped overseas and when our pensions were gutted as corporations ducked out on their promises. The media's silence was deafening as credit-card rates became usurious. We were told that unions were obsolete as wages stagnated while productivity skyrocketed. Now you tell us in the guise of Uncle Sam that it is our duty to start spending. The obvious question is: spending what?
Steve Milligan
Colorado Springs, Colo.

How is President Obama's admonition to stop saving and start spending any different from George W. Bush's similar dictum after 9/11? The only obvious difference is that we had money then and now we don't. Besides, we Americans have been chastised for not saving enough and now we are being chastised for not spending enough. It makes your head spin.
Bob Wolf
Milford, N.H.

Two thumbs down for using Uncle Sam to implore Americans to spend more to revive the economy. MASSIVE debt at all levels is a major reason for the downturn, and it won't be solved by schemes that add more debt. The prescription for helping the economy is to create more demand for goods and services by raising the wages of workers who must necessarily spend their paychecks. Passing the Employee Free Choice Act would do that by leveling the playing field for labor in the workplace.
Doug Zimmerman
Columbus, Ohio

Drug-Cartel-Related Violence
The old Mexican lament "so far from God, so near the United States" has never been more true than it is today. Your March 23 article "The Enemy Within," on Mexican drug violence in the United States, overlooks the source of the situation—and its true victims. Because Americans spend billions annually on mind-altering drugs while simultaneously enacting laws against them that are unenforceable, we not surprisingly breed— à la Prohibition—a hellish commerce that mostly victimizes our neighbors. The United States should at least have the integrity to produce and control these drugs within our own borders, and free our neighbors from the murder, corruption and political instability that our habits visit upon them.
Bill Perry
Ajo, Ariz.

In Praise of the Vegan Diet
It's nice to know that David Noonan has lost weight since becoming a vegan ("I Can't Believe I'm Still a Vegan," March 23). I hope he will soon learn that veganism also reduces pollution, global warming, deforestation, water crises and the inhumane mistreatment of animals.
Brien Comerford
Glenview, Ill.

A Better Life, but No Assimilation
I still cannot understand why Muslims flee their native lands seeking a better life in Britain or any other Western nation, only to want to turn these countries into clones of the failed states they just left ("Jihad Chic Comes to London," March 23). The only rational explanation is that instead of assimilating into their adoptive homes, these radicalized Muslims simply want to spread their fundamentalist brand of Islam and transform Europe into Eurabia. Shame on the politically correct politicians, appeasers and journalists who sit idly by and allow these radical Muslims to do what the Nazis ultimately could not: bring the West to its knees.
Kelly Van Rijn
Washington Township, N.J.

As an observant Jew who attends Yeshiva University, an institution that embodies traditional teachings and imparts them to its students, I feel strongly that there is a difference between a religion's traditionalism and violent extremism. To avoid "touching a woman's hand" may be traditional, but it is the "blood and chaos and hatred" that make the "intolerance and brutality" of Taliban jihadism a problem. I may be a traditionalist, but I most certainly am not a violent extremist.
Yair Saperstein
Lawrence, N.Y.

Correction
In the March 30 issue, an item in the Conventional Wisdom Watch wrongly implied that Richard Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in President Obama's State Department, bore some culpability for the $165 million in bonuses awarded recently to AIG executives for their work over the past year. Although Holbrooke was a member of AIG's board of directors from 2001 to 2008 and served on a committee that established guidelines for executive compensation, his tenure with that committee ended in 2005—several years before the controversial bonuses were established. Moreover, the full board was never briefed on the bonuses during the time Holbrooke served on it. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.