Letter to the Editor: I'm Not Using Facebook

To The Editor:  

I refuse to use Facebook, and I refuse to give any accurate personal information to Facebook. I realize that by mandating Facebook as your only “public comment” log-in gateway you and Facebook are gathering, and Facebook and you are sharing, a variety of what used to be considered private or personal information about users. I believe this is a deceitful business practice.  

The information which you and Facebook gather surreptitiously, by duping people into its submission, is really none of your business. If you want to ask people a direct question about their personal information such as their date of birth, their mother’s maiden name, their first teachers name, their first pet’s name, their educational background, their politics, and their income bracket - and other personal characteristics and preferences - why not be up-front about it, rather than cloaking your request in the vale of Facebook’s “social networking” disguise.   My comment on the “L.A. Mayor Urges ‘Big Solution’ For California Finances” article is:

Increasing taxes on California businesses will force some businesses to leave the state of California and that will reduce private industry employment in the state (further). These trends have a cascading effect and will further increase unemployment as the trend gains moment.  The long term effect of this trend to increase taxes will be to reduce total tax revenue for the state. The solution to California’s fiscal problems lies in fiscal restraint in government spending and the demand for quality and productivity from the state’s education systems and from other public employees.

Please re-read Aesop’s “The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs”  

—Bill George