Protect credit cards

My credit card number was stolen twice last year. Once locally and once in Austin, Texas. Charges were accrued for several hundred dollars and then over a thousand dollars.

Mike Vega (Hatch police chief) stated in an article March 6 that it was probably due to unsecured websites that about 50 Hatch residents had credit/debit card numbers stolen. When this many people are targeted in one central area, common sense dictates that most were stolen at a local establishment.

My credit card company said the most common venues where numbers are stolen are at gas stations and restaurants. Thieves can install scanners or readers at the gas pumps and a small scanner can be used at a restaurant or even a cell phone picture taken of your card. The numbers and name are sent elsewhere and new cards are reproduced cheaply.

Employers need to watch their employees better and check their work areas unannounced.

To help prevent stolen credit/debit card numbers:

Don't pay at the pump - pay inside where you can watch the scan or scan yourself by estimating the fill-up.

At restaurants where credit/debit cards are taken by the cashier to swipe and pay the bill, pay in cash.

Use gift cards as an alternative.

Use ATMS only when necessary. There are scanners which pick up the numbers you punch in even at a distance.

Use cash more often when traveling.

Buy protective sleeves for cards and even passports. Elite scanners can read them in your purse or wallet when in your vicinity.

Never lay your card on a counter where someone else can see it.

Do not be distracted when a cashier is handling your card which allows a quick move to a hidden scanner.


Las Cruces

Gap widens

The golden rule in economics is for a country to invest in productivity and eventually everyone will benefit i.e. invest in better technology and smarter management practices so we can do more with less. That principle has served the U.S. well until recently. For the last 30 years, all the benefits of higher productivity have gone to the few, especially the top 1-2 percent - with the bottom 80 percent worse off than they were in the 1980s.

The stock market is now back to where it was before the great recession and, according to Forbes magazine, the 1,400 wealthiest billionaires in the world (mostly Americans) have a total net worth of $5.4 trillion - a 17 percent increase from the year before.

Another factor is that today's jobs have shifted significantly (over 60 percent) to the service economy where pay is at a relatively low level - $10 an hour or less.

We used to have a progressive tax system in this country, but with the increasing influence of Wall Street and private equity/hedge fund investors in Washington, that is no longer the case. When income comes from investment, it is taxed at 15 to 20 percent, whereas rates for the middle class wage worker is 30 percent or higher and an 8.0 percent payroll taxes (up to $108,000) - which amounts to 33 percent of total tax revenue at the federal level. With the inability of today's market economy to create decent paying jobs (or any job) for the majority of American citizens, plus the regressive tax system - we're headed for an increasing lack of faith in the fairness of our political/economic system - leading to even more divisions between the haves and the have-nots.


Las Cruces