Retail Sales

Regarding “Poor Holiday Season Reported by Retailers,” Dec. 27: The result of corporate cutbacks has finally caused consumers to cut back. Did all the corporations think that “increasing productivity” would never hurt them? The “shaky economy” is directly attributed to the firing of hundreds of thousands of workers and white-collar professionals. In addition, lack of salary increases and reliance on a bonus system keeps real wages below inflation.

So, now we are downsizing our spending habits. Go ahead, fire more people; we’ll just spend even less!

PAUL HOVEY

Los Angeles