To the editor:
As per the article “Work ethic needs polishing” [Walkabout Aroostook by Paula Brewer, Sept. 4] — We used to have a work ethic. Now it is replaced by a very strong sense of entitlement.
Today’s generation feels that they are somehow owed something. I just be one of the last who believes that you must work and save if you want something.
Growing up, I washed cars, cut grass, had paper routes, baled hay and, in the winter, shoveled sidewalks. If you didn’t have the money — you did without.
Parents want their children to have it better than they did, but in doing so have sent the wrong signals. Kids now feel that they don’t have to earn anything: “Just give it to me.”
I once offered $25 an hour to help me empty an apartment and move the contents to another. Result? No takers. $200 a day for an eight-hour day is a lot of grocery/gas money — not a bad supplement.
There’s a second issue: business transactions.
The salesman from a local business wants us all to keep our business in Aroostook County. Then how about not charging us brutally for items I know I can get cheaper somewhere else? I went to purchase a car part that usually goes for $85-$100. They wanted to charge me over $300. Recently — and I still wonder how and why — I paid over $32 for two sandwiches.
Charles Eckstein
Presque Isle
