Wages

I want to commend George H. McCutcheon (letter, Sept. 19) for having the courage to tell the Portland shipyard workers their labor is probably not worth $13 an hour. If those bellyachers would stop their whining and work on their job skills then maybe they could someday make the contributions to society of a Michael Jackson ($60 million a year), a Charles Schulz ($33 million) or a Madonna, whom we are fortunate to get for a paltry $20 million (Business Section, same day).

Really, how hard do we have to hit these workers over the head--isn’t a 30% pay cut and broken promises of restoration if they work hard enough?--before they realize that in this society creating wealth is looked down upon; it’s those who redistribute the wealth (lawyers, brokers, agents) who are our national treasures. It’s people like these Portland guys who insist on doing productive work, making things, who are spoiling the American Dream: everybody selling things to everybody else with each of us taking 10% off the top in fees!

You tell ‘em, George! Let’s cut them back to $4 an hour in scrip good only at the company store!

JEFF ASHLEY

Glendora