Letters: Jun. 30, 1997

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"We're not what you thought" is the most correct and comprehensive description of Generation X yet offered. In many ways, the people of my generation give thanks to your uninformed and unfair misconceptions. Your telling us we're slackers has made us work harder. Your telling us we're losers has deepened our desire to win. In the same way that Depression children learned to survive the failure of the economy, we've learned to survive the ineptness of the preceding generation. MICHAEL CATHEY Los Angeles

How do I get my name off the X list? Though I'm 29, I don't fit the profile. I was raised in an intact family, finished college in "only" four years, watch very little TV and don't own a computer. If this group ever gets a grip, I'll put my name back on the list. Until then, consider me a late boomer. KRISTIN SNYDER LAURENCELL Towson, Md.

As a Gen Xer, I see my generation fitting your description of the boomers and thus heading down the wrong path in this troubled world. Our optimism is premature and foolish considering the egoistic bent of most Gen Xers; we are simply too individualistic and materialistic to accomplish anything real and global. Dostoyevsky's Father Zosima reminds us that the individualism and materialism of modern life lead to isolation, nothing more. BRIAN R. FRAPPIER Manville, R.I.

THE CROAKING OF JOE CAMEL

Your depiction of the croaking Joe Camel in a hospital bed [BUSINESS, June 9], complete with oxygen breathing tube, should be plastered on every billboard that once had the cool Joe with a cigarette drooping from his fat lips. JILL STOECKER Boulder, Colo.

UNDERNEATH THE ARCHES

As the owner-operator of several McDonald's restaurants, I found your gloom-and-doom article off the mark [BUSINESS, June 9]. Yes, sales are not at previous levels; however, McDonald's, as the leader of quick-service restaurants, has the responsibility, indeed the mandate, to provide our customers with quality, service, cleanliness and values, guidelines that are the foundation of Ray Kroc's legacy. If it means new products and promotions, so be it. It is always better to lead than to follow. Our competitors still need to ketchup. PATRICIA WILLIAMS Los Angeles

You failed to address a key shortcoming: lack of service. There was a time when any visitor to McDonald's could expect excellent service and a clean, efficiently run operation served up with the burgers and fries.

No more. In the past year or so, I have noticed that many McDonald's restaurants employ personnel who are consistently indifferent. Restaurants are often dirty, and even the simplest requests cannot be accommodated. The executives at McDonald's need to address more than what's on the menu. They need to re-establish the level of service that consumers expect. LAURIE R. ORR Plano, Texas

I would gladly pay twice as much for a burger, fries and milk shake that taste as good as the ones we got when Mom and Dad piled us in the car and took us to dinner at Mickey D's. Fat, sodium and calories be damned! JOAN HADDOCK Birchwood, Tenn.

I have always thought of McDonald's as a toy store that just happened to sell hamburgers. Why doesn't it stop selling plastic junk and flat, dry burgers? McDonald's could use a cooking lesson or two--you know, How to Barbecue a Hamburger 101. DALE BENWELL Merced, Calif.

PAULA'S DAY IN COURT