U.S. Work Force and Management

Your Dec. 9 article (“Struggling With the Downturn”) on unemployed people was interesting, but left me very confused. By what logic is someone who owns his own business considered unemployed? By that reasoning I have been unemployed for the last two years, a somewhat distressing thought. In addition, from my point of view buying a plane on a $140,000 salary is not “frugality,” but is rather being very well paid. Surely with the thousands of hard-working people out of work in the current miserable economy, The Times could find someone more representative than a couple with a vacation condo, a home in Malibu and five years’ worth of savings who won’t consider a salary under $95,000. If that looks like suffering to a Times reporter, they must be very well paid indeed. Where do I sign up?

LEE AYDELOTTE

Huntington Beach