No minimum wage can keep it cheap

In a Sunday letter regarding the Airbus tanker proposal, the writer was wondering if in “Alabama, they had a breakthrough that allowed assembly work at less cost than France.” In fact, Alabama does. Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama are the only states in the United States that have no minimum wage laws.

I can just imagine how inexpensively Airbus could eventually build commercial jets after setting up shop in Alabama. It’s the next level of outsourcing. With the continually weakening dollar, the United States may just become the new location for cheap manufacturing, thanks in no small part to the (lack of) sound fiscal policies of the Bush administration.

Don Everest

Snohomish