Thought for the Day–Will You Lower Your Expectations?

From the Wall Street Journal(2/22/10) A Letter to the Editor:

Susan Michaelson wants the American public to shift expectations about what constitutes “appropriate” compensation because American wage and benefits demands have “priced” U.S. workers “out of the world market” (Letters, Feb. 11, responding to John Hofmeister’s “The U.S. Needs an Industrial Policy,” op-ed, Feb. 8).

As for me, I am grateful that the labor movement in this country has fought to support a livable wage for the vast majority of American workers, and has prevented us from competing with the Third World on wages.

Is she suggesting that we should all compete with citizens of countries that pay a tiny fraction of what workers in the U.S. are paid? Would she or any of her family members accept such a salary in order to be competitive? If we are going to race to the bottom in wages and benefits for blue-collar work, will she and her family be happy to join the race to the bottom?

Edwin Andrews
Malden, Mass.