Prevailing wage

Pres. Bush has suspended the Davis-Bacon Act for the Gulf Coast devasted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This means contractors will not have to pay prevailing wages to their workers. Kirk Pickerel, guest columnist for the AJC, who happens to be president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contactors Inc., points out that "the hardest-hit communities have little familiarity with federal prevailing wage laws, like Davis-Bacon, because they have enacted no similar state laws. Louisiana, Missiissippi and Alabama are among 20 states that have cosen not to have state prevailing wage laws..."

Wow, what a recommendation! Three of the poorest states in the nation don't have prevailing wage laws. Surely the rest of the nation should follow suit, so their economies can have the same obviously helpful benefits. I can see why Mr. Pickerel thinks suspending this rule is wonderful. It is because he is such a wonderful humanitarian that he wants to make sure the illegal immigrants who were left homeless and jobless by the hurricanes get work. It has nothing to do with the opportunity he will have to make windfall profits out of other people's misery. (This is sarcasm, for those who are sarcasm-impaired.)