Letters

...Our estimate is that approximately half the homeless can be helped by a well-designed job program...

...While I did say that the honorarium question was much ado about nothing, I nevertheless voiced no opposition to disclosure...

...At their poorest, their systems were reasonably good...

...SOAK THE RICH was a New Deal battle cry...

...If he had called, he would have learned that the John Glenn quote he lifted from Newsweek's "Perspectives" page appeared there only because I reported it after attending Glenn's swearing-in of the new National Press Club president (a Saturday evening event that was largely uncovered...

...Should two or three airlines snap up the long-term leases at an airport, they could easily pass on the added cost of holding underused gates or slots to their passengers (in fact, that's why airports don't charge full value now...

...Womack suggests, is not a promising alternative...

...He cites as an example the case of Southwest Airlines in Detroit, which "subleases gates from Northwest at the rate of $150 per flight—I9 times what Northwest pays for its gate space...

...For those who suffer from the X-factor but are not disturbed or addicted, part of their exaggerated sense of entitlement (I think) stems simply from loneliness...

...When Eleanor Randolph asked me to reveal the speeches I made and how much I was paid for them, I told her...

...With the exception of "The McLaughlin Group," which pays better, the total honoraria came to $2,000...

...hence the overuse of aging airplanes for more traffic hogged by fewer airlines, greater pilot fatigue and error, less pilot training, etc...

...I really don't know the full explanation for what you label the "X-factor"—I do suspect, though, that the exaggerated sense of entitlement that you came across would have faded had you remained in contact longer with the X-factor individuals...

...Better to tax land values and airport gates than to tax producers (workers and businesses...

...A corresponding undersupply of government air-traffic controllers (unlikely to improve, given the federal deficit and government misuse of the airline fund to cover it) is to thank for the greater number of near misses (or near hits, depending on how you read "near") and long takeoff and landing delays...

...WILLIAM H. DARBY Corpus Christi, Texas Plane speaking There is no doubt in my mind that everything Larry Eichel writes in his article ["Flying the Unfriendly Skies," February] is quite true...

...However, I think we are being concerned about the wrong thing...

...And what about paying outrageously high premiums for limited medical care—or winding up sick, uninsured, and consequently destitute...

...Auto or bus is too slow, and bus is too uncomfortable...

...Shuger suggests, "Dynasty...

...In fact, for many homeless, significant support would be necessary to obtain and retain most jobs, especially jobs above the minimum wage...

...I'm on your side...

...But since The Washington Monthly is so earnest about the subject, why did you omit the names of the staffers who made paid speeches to the organizations you listed...

...Who's going to pick the airline...

...I was very pleased that Willrich did not report that I had been bought off by the Heritage Foundation, and that he praised me for being forthright about honoraria...

...The solution, therefore, is not a return to government regulation, whose abuses and inadequacies prompted deregulation to begin with (and, given past experience, would only serve to cement the airline oligarchy Eichel deplores), but to further degovernmentalize airports and air-traffic control, turning them over completely to private enterprise and allowing profit incentives, not politics, to allow them to expand and multiply to meet airline traffic demand, compete with major dominance at older airports, and encourage innovations like peak-priced landing fees that vary with use and time of day to even out traffic patterns...

...I agree with you...

...Yet, as long as he holds the top position at Forbes magazine, he will never experience the exhilaration of success achieved in starting new enterprises from nothing...

...RICHARD COHEN Washington, D. C. I believe a journalist who lives by the sword should be prepared to die by the sword...

...These seem to be far more plausible reasons for homelessness than, as Mr...

...ELEANOR CLIFT Washington, D.C...

...The eldest son of Malcolm Forbes is quoted as saying that the magazine he inherits will continue to express the conservative economic beliefs of his father...

...In the future, please try to go beyond fluffy perceptions, and offer some solid insights...

...Instead, he zings me as a so-called celebrity journalist for neglecting my reporting duties because of "how thin she's spreading herself...

...For the medium-length trips, as for example from Cincinnati to Cleveland, I have no satisfactory choice...

...Nevertheless, when I read The Washington Monthly, I was dismayed to see that I was characterized as being opposed to disclosure...

...Why did I not write immediately after the February issue...

...All speeches disclosed by the Monthly were made by Charles Peters...

...ARTHUR D. PENSER Huntsville, Alabama You say you have received no letters after urging a much higher estate tax on large inheritances...

...Ditto for landing slots: let those be leased out also...

...Private ranchers shouldn't graze their cattle on public lands rent-free any more than airlines should land their airplanes rent-free at airport gates or slots...

...But that doesn't make me a "conservative...

...Has it not occurred to Larry Eichel that the airlines' hub-and-spoke dominance is due to the woeful undersupply of airports and that that undersupply is due to the governmental or quasi-governmental nature of airports themselves...

...I've found that the homeless are almost wholly cut off from any abiding human companionship ("disaffiliated," to use the lingo of sociology...

...If you assume that no one agrees with you, you will be off by at least one...

...And, most disturbing, when is the market going to decide that we've built too many airports and put too many planes in the sky at once...

...WILLIAM WOMACK Washington, D.C...

...It will do wonders for your circulation...

...LETTERS Street talk "Who are the Homeless...

...As to my published comments at Heritage (which I sent Willrich a copy of), I said that "Ronald Reagan's record on the homeless is one of the biggest blots on his legacy . . It is time to put several billion dollars of federal money into more innovative homeless-aid programs...

...STEVEN CORD Columbia, Maryland The editors reply: Handing control of the airways to the free market, as Mr...

...British Rail's Intercity service is now making a profit and, as time goes on, so will others...

...STANLEY SCHROEDER San Diego, California Your experiences with the homeless in D.C.'s streets and shelters accord closely with what I've found elsewhere around the country...

...Obviously, the airline with the deepest pockets, the one which can afford to jack up fares in a distant market it already controls in order to subsidize its hostile takeover of National, will dominate the airport...

...It looked to me as though you would have to be elected president before there would be someone in that office who would make the case for higher inheritance taxes and sign a bill after pressing the issue on Congress...

...Fewer airports means fewer choices for fliers and easier dominance by the majors...

...David Nather fully substantiates how airlines are managing to tie up all gates at various hub airports with longterm below-market leases, even if they're not using them ["Flying the Unfriendly Skies II," March...

...The Washington Monthly exposes waste and mismanagement better than anyone else, but your examinations of large social issues tend to be woefully superficial...

...Your story reflected some of what I have written on the homeless, and the egotist in me would like to have seen some mention of those pieces—particularly since I took a fair amount of grief for what I wrote at the time, and since Michael Willrich's article in the same Monthly issue ["Renting the Fourth Estate" conveyed the impression that my articles on the homeless had a "conservative bent...

...It is true that I don't accept many of the claims about the homeless put forth by homeless advocates...

...Think of the difficulty in getting a job doing manual labor when a great many jobs are moving into the service sector of the economy...

...Several years ago, your colleague Michael Kinsley wrote a New York Times editorial about the frustrations of looking for an apartment in Manhattan for under $1,000 a month...

...The poor can't afford it, and the rich can afford to disregard it...

...Higher inheritance taxes could also spare us from paying the price exacted by the declining number of platforms for expression of something other than conservative economic assumptions...

...We fulfilled our mission and prepared a homeless employment plan...

...MORTON MINTZ Chevy Chase, Maryland President Bush seems to assume that we citizens cannot figure out that reducing the capital gains tax for the wealthy and increasing the social security tax on the working people is not the way to have a "kinder, gentler nation...

...And in any case, here's a significant revenue raiser for airports or for governments—a revenue raiser, the costs of which could not be passed on to airline passengers in the form of higher prices...

...President, do you favor or oppose a higher estate tax on large inheritances, which as you know, are unearned...

...The "X-factor" is a useful perspective, which I will share with my colleagues...

...Well, I don't know how Michael Willrich prioritizes his time, but I do know he never found the time to call me for his piece...

...The pre-Heritage speech article that Willrich suggests cleared me of a conflict of interest (because it had the "same [conservative] bent" as my post-Heritage "conservative" story) appeared in that right-wing rag, The New Republic...

...I might be wrong, but that seems to me to be a pretty sad piece of the X-factor puzzle...

...I don't feel, though, that I hold conservative views on the homeless...

...The means were taxes: personal tax rates ran up to 92 percent, inheritance and gift taxes ran up to 50 percent...

...Actually, I agree with you about 95 percent of the time...

...This is exactly like the taxation of land values—another kind of space...

...If it does, I think that qualifies the Monthly for the C-word too...

...Also, don't tell me that Americans will not ride trains...

...The son has reason to be grateful to his father and the tax system that will enable him to continue to entertain advertisers on the Forbes yacht...

...DENZIL WALTERS Seattle, Washington Here's a letter agreeing with you...

...Department of Labor has selected our plan as one of this year's Homeless Employment Demonstration Projects, so now we have a chance to conduct a full-scale demonstration of the plan to see how it works...

...Womack, since "profit incentives" will cause airports to "expand and multiply...

...My own experience is that some of the grandiosity of the homeless reflects relatively subtle mental illness or substance abuse problems that are not always evident on a first encounter...

...After all, wouldn't it be too costly for an airline to underuse its gates if it had to pay full rental value for them...

...Two years ago, I was asked to apply my job training expertise to the question of helping the homeless get jobs—the implication being that if the homeless had jobs, the problem would be solved...

...In fact, 1 have written a column advocating precisely that—although just how this disclosure will be made and to whom is something I leave to others to figure out...

...Your proposal for a return to an inheritance tax that rises in steps from 38 percent for incomes above $100,000 to 50 percent for incomes above $300,000 would not in itself put Forbes under new management, but it would increase the challenges facing the four Forbes sons and thus give them a better chance to earn your admiration and mine...

...Trips to and from the airports take more time than the actual flight...

...Here in New York, some of the homeless have two and three part-time jobs...

...If inheritance taxes had been high enough to deprive Donald Trump of a chance to get a good toehold in Manhattan property, he might have developed a set of values of a different social order...

...Given that homelessness has increased enormously under the Reagan and Bush administrations, I find it more likely that the problem is essentially economic and political, rather than cultural...

...Today every European country is building systems that will average better than 150 mph...

...We should be taking action along the lines of Europe...

...S. TED ISAACS Cincinnati, Ohio As boring as it grows to repeatedly point out the obvious to diehard defenders of regulation, the higher fares, reduced safety margins, and inferior service of today's airline market are attributable not to airline deregulation but to continued government intervention in two other crucial (and consistently ignored) areas of air travel: airports and air-traffic control...

...For those keeping score at home, add a speech to the German Marshall Fund ($125) and an appearance on WUSA's "Capital Edition" ($300) to your totals...

...That's OK, reasons Mr...

...If the price and service are right, we will...

...The activities he lists as too time-consuming include four 8 a.m...

...If you favor disclosure, it's no fair hiding under the corporate umbrella...

...KAREN TREANOR Forest Hills, New York Your article on the homeless confirms my faith in The Washington Monthly's skill at cutting through the rhetoric and pulling out the nuggets of truth in our social and political issues...

...Soak the dead This is a letter agreeing with you ["Tilting at Windmills," March...

...It is our total commitment to air and automotive transportation that is the real problem...

...An astute friend once pointed out to me that middleclass morality is found only among middle-class people...

...Cord's long-term leases won't work either...

...I'm not really surprised you've had no mail on this—it seems so hopeless a cause with the kind of political leadership and politicalparty "competition" we have...

...Do big, airy dreams create homelessness—or does homelessness create big, airy dreams...

...I am not, and, if you like, I will annually file a statement of speaking fees with The Washington Monthly...

...and that "most of what the president and Ed Meese did for the homeless was to raise doubts about whether they really wanted help and whether they really were hungry...

...Well, the market—through a bidding war...

...Imagine trying to find a place to live in New York today—for, say, $400 a month...

...The social security tax starts with the first dollar earned, with no exemption until one earns more than $51,300 a year...

...Most of us, confronted with that degree of misfortune, might very well engage in such fantasies as a way of preserving our dignity and sense of hope...

...Even Amtrak, with all its defects, is gaining ridership every year...

...How many planes can land on a given runway at Washington's National Airport at 5:00 on a given afternoon...

...But wouldn't it be nice if just one White House reporter, just once, would ask just one question such as, "Mr...

...Fortunately, the U.S...

...The trains are clean, comfortable, and frequently energy efficient and environmentally benign...

...It was the intention to make extinct over time all large personal fortunes...

...Thanks for providing an insightful look at a difficult problem...

...An article making these points rather than the same old back-to-big-government chant would have made a far more significant contribution to discussion of air-travel problems...

...Our neglect of rail is foolish...

...Intelligent government oversight and control, not "back-to-big-government" cant, is needed when a market contains such natural barriers to free enterprise and when public safety is at stake...

...Frankly, I don't put much stock in theories that attribute social problems to some vague national mentality...

...Events of the moment offer arguments for higher inheritance taxes...

...Perhaps he has misidentified cause and effect...

...The editors reply: Son of Disclosure—The Adventure Continues: We regret that, through an editorial error, we omitted Richard Cohen's endorsement of disclosure...

...As a working journalist for more than 20 years, I've never been too busy to call the subjects (or targets) of a piece, even if it's only for a no comment...

...There is no doubt that the speed of air for long hauls and the convenience of automobiles for short- and medium-length trips of certain types is advantageous...

...An army of lawyers and tax accountants went to work to find ways to avoid or repeal these taxes, and they were effective for only about two years...

...Honoraria discharges . Michael Willrich spoke to me at least twice in connection with his piece on journalists and honoraria...

...Nather offers a one-sentence solution to this gate problem: "Gate leases should be short-term, no more than six months to a year, and they should be renewed by the airport authority—or canceled—based solely on the airline's performance at that airport...

...I'm not so thin-skinned that I can't take a few jabs...

...This trickle-down effect is described by John Kenneth Galbraith as "the horse and sparrow metaphor, holding that if the horse is fed enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows...

...It is insensitive to the plight of the poor, the marginal wage earner, and the elderly, and shifts the tax burden to those least able to pay...

...However, a good homeless employment program, in our opinion, must include intensive case management, which is often expensive...

...breakfast panel discussions with highschool students and television appearances that were taped before 9 a.m., during lunch, or after 7 p.m...

...This is socialism for the rich...

...Moreover, the allegedly "conservative" post-Heritage story prompted a letter from Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation, who complained that I had understated the extent of mental illness among the homeless...

...When Willrich asked me, I told him, too...

...DAVID WHITMAN Washington, D.C...

...But hold on a second: who's going to condemn the land to build the airports...

...I have no quarrel with disclosure...

...Who's going to condemn the neighbors for miles around to sleepless nights...

...But I found the Monthly's piece on journalists accepting honoraria to be a bit much...

...Experience tells us the airport is not likely to be tough enough, and anyway, if the leases are at full market value, the authorities won't have to make such tough decisions...

...Your reporter concedes he couldn't find any real conflict of interest...

...And don't tell me that trains are uneconomical...

...Working with local shelters and social agencies, it became apparent that jobs were not the answer for all homeless people...

...Senators and representatives will not raise them, for many owe their positions to the advantages that come with inheritance...

...They come with the territory...

...This tax policy is highly beneficial to the rich, penalizes the poor, and puts increased tax burdens on the working and middle classes...

...My guess is that when folks become that isolated, the only way they can justify their state is by puffing up their sense of privilege and expectation...

...HANK COX Takoma Park, Maryland Scott Shuger interviews a relatively small number of panhandlers and concludes that their condition is the result of the unrealistic attitudes instilled in them by popular culture...

...As tax-supported monopolies requiring public input for their construction, airports rely on politics, not economics, for their existence, i.e., wangling higher taxes and/or bond approval out of reluctant taxpayers, inviting endless struggles from local pressure groups over airport construction and maintenance, cutting cozy lease and landing-fare deals between local politicos and politically favored airlines, plus the time-consuming red tape, inefficiency, and corruption we can expect from any government activity...

...No doubt there are actions that the industry, government, and individuals could take that would lead to improvements...

...Shuger probably didn't interview people like them, either because he assumes that all the employed have homes or because the working homeless are usually too ashamed of their status to admit to it...