14th May, 2011
The economic depression of the 1930’s was a major hit to the United States. Very many people were rendered jobless and as a result fingers were pointed to several forces some of which are a direct hit to the workforce itself. Some people considered the work force to be responsible for the depression and thus its impacts were just befitting. The work force is composed of different people with different ages and of different sexes. This is what Helen O’ Reilly is addressing through her letter that is basically addressing on the working age. She says that the working age has really gone down in that there are very many young people in the working force. Furthermore, she says that there is an increment in the women participation and vice versa in the men participation since 1954. She therefore cautions Brooks that they, men, could be doing the jobs that the women were initially doing. Her letter is a persuasive letter. In the second letter, Diane Runyan tries to refute Brooks’s claims on unemployment. She says that it is alarming that the United States is among the G-7 countries and its members are facing unemployment to that rate. She thus says that there is something that the United States is not doing that the rest are doing. She gives an example that this could be unlike in other countries that provide safety nets to the rest of the citizens the United States government is not doing anything. She also proposes that the country to cut down its expenses on the Medicare and instead increase in chances of self reliance. This she presented in her article titled the missing fifth. This same problem is also addressed by John Reeder, who is very categorical in his letter, fantasy in the Keynesian stimulus. He says that there is no reality that will be realized through this method; instead he proposes that an action to be taken as was in the 1930 and in 1970. He also tries to convince the rest of the citizens that short term jobs will help a lot in saving the rest of the American population from the effects of unemployment. It is also a persuasive letter.
The persuasive letter is addressed to the entire population of the United States, to persuade them to understand the essence of fighting unemployment through such means. However the response letter is addressed to both Diane and the general public. It is to convince people that Diane’s view is wrong and that the problem lies with the workforce age and the sex ratio in the work force.
In both letters, brooks letter act as the point of reference. They are addressing the unemployment issue that is directly handled by Brooks. Despite this, these two letters are appropriately based on this letter of Brooks because the issue at hand has to be addressed fully.
The evidences in these letters are the acts to the economic depression of the 1930’s which saw people being retrenched and thus losing they jobs. In reaction to this the United States economy was forced to employ several people to cut down the effect of the unemployment that was almost putting the country to its knees. Also the, an evidence is in the during the 1970’s employment plan which was to effect the employment of people as soon as possible. These evidences are appropriate for they are based on actions that have been taking to address the problem that these two letters are trying to address. However, they might not be appropriate because the conditions that prevailed during those times may be different from what is happening today.
In both letter, the letters are addressed in the first person view. The use of words like, ‘our’ by Diane and ‘we’ by O’ Reilly, are indications that both writers are citizens of the United States and are addressing their fellow citizens.
The question to reckon with is whether the three letters have successfully addressed the issue on unemployment. This can only be proved through putting these ideas into practice.
Conclusion
In these letters, the persuasive letters seem to be very convincing. They address this issue in a perspective that gives concrete evidence to help understand that only an action can save the situation as it was it had been saved before.
These genres can effectively impact several people in that they are short and can be easily read by people even those who may feel that they have no time. They carry messages which can be expounded to create a meaning in the readers.
