Living Wage Supporters Should Aim Higher

Dear Editor,
    Hooray for the Workers Defense Project [“Victories for Living Wages,” News, Nov. 30]! I just wish they could have aimed higher. Try living on $11 an hour, Mr. Mayor and council members. In the heat. While your boss takes liberties with your safety. And don't get sick, as you will not get paid. And if it rains, stay home without pay. As quoted in your story: "Development-minded folks … say that even the 1% increase suggested by WDP would amount, using HID Global construction as a marker, to $300,000." So? Out of how many millions on the same project? Mayor Lee Leffingwell, worried about contractors scraping by? F them! Your misplaced concern does not give anyone the right to exploit people on my dime. Anyhow, Mr. Mayor, don't you know a competent bid is made with a healthy profit margin factored in, plus cost overruns when the client is too dense to read the contract? To do otherwise is to quickly fail in the construction game. This baloney about "takers" feeding at the public trough while exploiting the poor and vulnerable with my money needs to stop! It is wrong! Mayor Leffingwell, you are heartless, and I pity you when you meet your maker.