Letter of the Day: Dow's rewards

Dow's rewards

EDITOR: When I read Michael Hiltzik's Friday column ("Dow hits record, but who is rewarded?"), I wanted to rephrase George Santayana to say, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to be ignorant."

To answer who is rewarded, go back to articles published after the last market crash about the people who couldn't take their planned retirement, or whose plans were in danger, because their IRAs and other retirement accounts had lost so much value. Those people, the ones who saved and continue saving, are being rewarded. They now, maybe, can retire or continue to plan their futures.

To respond to the specific statement, "Where do all those corporate profits go? Chiefly to upper management and shareholders," my answer is yes, and almost everyone with an investment account, including retirement accounts of any type, is a shareholder. It is worth noting that those accounts hold a large proportion of the outstanding stock through mutual funds and such.

I certainly don't advocate a corporate-profit-at-all-costs philosophy, but we need to acknowledge that a healthy economy is a good thing for a lot of people.

L. ROBERT HILL

Santa Rosa