Picking apart a labored logic

Re: “Trying to find a job is not a job,” Opinion, May 3

Thank you for publishing Barbara Ehrenreich’s opinion piece.

We are a nation obsessed with attributing everything to personal effort -- even when the headlines are screaming to us that factors beyond our control are at play.

Those who are guilt-tripping the unemployed for lack of effort are wearing blinders and doing harm to people who lost jobs through no fault of their own.

Linda Pulliam

Sebastopol

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Ehrenreich seems surprised (or disappointed?) that jobless Americans don’t riot in the streets like their European brothers. But the U.S. is just now seeing unemployment levels that are more in line with some in Europe. Our misery index is different.

So too is our culture: It wouldn’t occur to the average American that someone owes him a job or that torching police cars might help him claim it.

The writer’s prescription for prosperity -- organized demands for more and more government handouts -- also runs counter to the national character.

Before sneering at the futility of job searches and retraining efforts, Ehrenreich should remember that her big idea -- to “design” a full-employment, command-and-control economy -- was tried on a massive scale during the 20th century and proved worse than futile. It was bloody.

Michael Smith

Cynthiana, Ky.

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I agree that finding a job after being laid off is a very demanding and time-consuming task. I also think that it can be a time to regroup and redesign a future.

It may be that a career and life makeover is needed. It is a time to scramble for a new path before the unemployment runs out.

Jayme Kidder

Glendale