Dear John: YMCA stops asking workers to raise funds

Dear John: Here’s an update on the YMCA policy of forcing personal trainers to raise money or get their appraisals downgraded.

I work at the McBurney Y on West 14th Street, and we had a meeting this morning just for the trainers. Thanks to you, we had a victory — or at least a partial victory.

Trainers are no longer obligated to raise money and will not be judged on it. The only thing we have to do is to participate in the fundraising — for example, writing thank-you letters and other small things.

Still, the state attorney general is investigating the whole thing. Thanks. Anonymous.

Dear Anonymous: Who says you can’t fix injustice in the world? Now go out there and do what you were hired to do: Make the world buff.

Maybe you can make a batch of cookies (low-fat, of course) and sell them at a bake sale for the poor Y.

Dear John: You recently suggested allowing American companies with international operations to repatriate their overseas profits at a favorable tax rate. In 2004 we gave companies a tax holiday to repatriate money. They had to pay only a 5 percent tax. The idea was that this money would create jobs.

Pfizer brought back billions in earnings, laid off thousands, and did a stock buyback to boost the stock so the execs’ stock options were in the money.

Repatriation can hurt the little guy more than help in this environment of greed. P.R.

Dear P.R.: So if what you say is true, we should learn a lesson from past mistakes and do it right this time.

The first part of what I wrote was that the $2.2 trillion that’s being stashed overseas could bring in enough in new tax revenue to the government to pay for something like highway and infrastructure repairs.

That’s what happens just from the tax paid on this money. Also, the Treasury Department is looking to put a crimp in US firms buying overseas companies to avert taxes.

Dear John: Yesterday, I mindlessly confirmed a Facebook friend request because it stated there was a “friend” in common — someone I know quite well, one of my daughter’s friends from high school.
Then I went to the new “friend’s” timeline and the first thing I saw was child porn.

I immediately deleted the friending. Then I searched Facebook to find out how to alert it to this.

The bottom line is I found no way to contact FB. All I could do at that point was return to this specific posting and click “I don’t like this post.” However, since I deleted this guy, I no longer had access to his timeline; all I saw were his two most recent postings in that short time lapse (he must be quite active), and those featured adult porn.

So I alerted my daughter’s friend, and she deleted this creep. I could write a letter to FB, but since I did not take a screen shot (why would I allow that to sit on my computer so the police could arrest me for having child porn?), I have no evidence.

Also, by the time FB received a letter, this specific post may have been gone. Calling FB? This is as impossible as alerting them online to offending sites. FB needs to have a quick and immediate way to e-mail it, whether on its site or through regular e-mail.

So I found your recent article, and am writing to you. Many thanks. M.H.

Dear M.H.: Yep, Facebook has a problem with child porn and porn in general.

And it’s a problem that is festering and eventually will come back to haunt this company when advertisers use it as an excuse to flee.

What can I say? I did my job by alerting the public. You did your job. And that’s all anyone can do.

Dear Readers,

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