Muscatine

Comment

People always talk about federal grants like they are 'free' money. Federal grants ARE taxpayer money (just from a broader base). And yes, people can say that those in the teaching profession or law enforcement professsion 'chose' that job. So if the pay sucks....they knew that coming in right?? The REALITY is that if we don't pay better...we will continue to lose people. Good, trained people. If they gave all these people a $5,000 raise......it might stop the revolving door of hiring people that costs a lot more then that.

being specific

Ok I should've been more specific about the federal grant of less then 5 percent to the riverfront project of which the statue monies came soley from donors not tax money. As for pay raises, we all need one and most of us deserve it. Some companies actually prefer to get rid of good,trained people to hire those for less money. We have large companies here in town that do that daily.Its a shame, but unless you have a great college education, you'll never get paid for your training alone.

People

Those companies get rid of those 'good trained people', because they are expensive. And they hire in 'new help', at a fraction of the cost. I agree, it's wrong..but it's not changing. The college education thing is great (I went). But I also know idiots that have their Masters. Colleges are a business as well. You pay them money...and they give you a piece of paper. Even if you are an idiot. We have to judge people as people. Because (increasingly) a lot of people have a piece of paper from a college (that do not have too much common sense).