Don't EVEN try to convince me that we're an angry city.

I'm mad as hell that you'd even mention it.

Sherry,

Guess what, it's called life choice's. If you want a higher paying job, you get a better education and apply yourself. If you drop out of school, for what ever reason, you are going to be in the low wage sector. At least till you get tired of it and change your situation by getting the training to move into a better field. If you don't. Welcome to your world. Your destiny is yours and yours alone.

"Although real estate is reasonable, that doesn't make up the difference of a 40 percent reduction in salary compared to the West Coast."

The lack of logic has me so bamboozeled I don't know where to begin.

Sherry,

You make some rather large leaps that the Greensboro's problems are due to salaries lower than the West Coast. You indicated that you retired and left the West Coast, and I suspect that the reason you did was that the cost of living here is much less than there. Also, it is common for small houses to routinely sell for in excess of $1 million there. Retired people are known to sell their houses there, move to a lower cost area, and pay cash for their new house in a lower cost area, such as Greensboro, then pocket considerable cash afterwards. You likely did this, so the cost of housing escapes you.

Sherry, further, if you are retired, why are you even concerned about the level of wages here? Increases in wages wil onl;y increase your cost of living further. I can assure you that the level of wages in any area help to drive the cost of living. If you feel that making higher wages is a priority, then I am sure that you have a plan that you ready to introduce to local employers to help make that happen, right?

Well Sherry Tow is at it again!

This poor disturbed woman really misses California, and her husband probably refuses to move back there, so she has resubmitted the same letter she wrote two months ago whining about the low wages in Greensboro. It's actually shocking that the crack editorial staff of the News and Record failed to notice that they have printed this whiney letter before.

I will concede that she did change a few words around this time. She continues in her one woman Jihad to make this point: Greensboro just isn't as good as "the West Coast."

Sherry, last time we gave you 400 reasons you are wrong. But, since none of them stuck, I will give you this advice:

HAUL YOUR BUTT BACK TO CALIFORNIA

That way, you'll be happy, and we'll be happy, and we won't have to see you sneak this letter past the crack editors for a third time. Everyone will win!

Regards,
Marty

This is caused by "them lib-ruhls" with their "high fa-looting talk" and their "cut & run, tax & spend"....oh yes. It's not our fault, it's the "lamestream media's too"!

Hugh, ORR:

Sherry's right.

I say let's institute a city wide minimum wage of fifty thousand dollars per year for unskilled laborers, with a mandatorally graduated scale for those employed in skilled, semi-skilled or professional positions.

Then, instead of being condemned as an "angry city", we'll all be free to happily enjoy sitting around in the morning eating our $130 Egg McMuffins.

Koom bah yah.

Coffee available with approved credit.

"$130 Egg McMuffins"

I paid $2 for one this morning and I think that is overpriced.

So, the key to happiness is more money? I always heard that the love of money was the root of all evil.

Regardless, I think Sherry might need to take a drive around town.

I cannot begin to count the new homes and townhomes being built and haven't seen one yet that starts for less than $200,000.

Combine that with the countless cellphone chatters, the high-dollar cars driving up and down our roads, and the waiting times at expensive restaurants in town and I somehow can't reconcile the idea that our city is somehow poorer than others.

In fact, I think this area is fairly prosperous. (Especially if you compare our standard of living with other states in the south).

Perhaps the reason we're so angry is not that we have too little, but too much.

When people like Sherry say poverty, what they mean is envy: a psychological state of deprivation relative to others. By objective historical standards, poverty hardly exists in America. Our "poor" have multiple TVs and cable. That's not as much as the rich, who have plasma TVs and digital cable. Hence, poverty. If only we could redistribute wealth so that everyone had the same things, like in North Korea.

janherman, I find your graduated pay scheme unconscionably elitist. More for skilled than for unskilled laborers? "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his need." Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

LOL - brian.

I have no conscience as a result of a hunting accident in 1993.

Had to have it surgically removed after Dick Cheney shot it.

This is interesting:

http://www.payscale.com/salary-survey/aid-6886/rid-79/fid-6886/RANAME-SALARY

The median salary in CA is $28,540. If you type in North Carolina it is $23,700. That is 17% less.

Maybe Sherry is comparing Greensboro to Beverly Hills?

I wonder where she got her 40% stat from?

Aside from a few lawyers, doctors and developers the rest of the city is wallowing in poverty with mile long soup lines?

I'm not sure if Sherry helps out in the soup kitchens or donates to local charities. If she does, kudos. If not, that is where she begins instead of writing whiny LTEs.

Dan,

My guess is that she got that 40% from the same place she got the rest of the letter.

I'm just stumped that she thinks poor equates to angry.

Some of the happiest, content and well-adjusted people I know are poor. Where does she get off stereotyping poor people?

I'm fat. I'm unhappy. I'm not married to Jennifer Love Hewitt so that makes me angry. the combination of the two makes me so depressed that i feel the need to drive around and listen to the crap on the radio which makes me irritated. I eat 2 double quarter pounders with cheese and 2 apple pies at mcdonalds and I feel better. I go home and lay down and the cycle repeats. Maybe i should join the Scientology cult...Tom Cruise tells me that a strict diet of excersize can get rid of my depression. :)

Dan!
Great line about working in the soup kitchens etc. I believe that is what I have been saying to all these conservatives that bitch and moan about high gas prices, etc.
Works for me!

This is another letter that I had to read several times. How can a city make high paying jobs its priority? What does she suggest?

Since my husband and I were not employed in one of the categories she listes, I guess we must be poor and barely making ends meet. What a silly statement, imo. Of course there are people struggling, of course the price of gas is hurting many, but does the writer think Greensboro is worse than other areas? What was the article about the angry city? What did I miss???

Evidently the pickings are slim for letters to the editor. I probably need to fire off another one. What subject hasn't been beaten to death? Any suggestions?

Agree with Nit. I suggest the writer relocate to Raleigh, the happy city.

Ok, this is one of those scary moments when we all agree on something. Happens about twice a year. Kumbaya.......

Carol, fire off a letter about how we are tired of letters from whiny retired Californians who sold their $2 million CA house, bought a nice new $500K Greensboro house, pocketed the extra $1.5 million and are bitchin about NC wages even though they don't work!!!

There are many good points from all sides. I agree that the writer exaggerates the angry city thing just a tad. However, the gap between rich and poor is growing and I do believe this is increasing frustration and anger in a lot of people, especially in the middle class. As to it being a Greensboro, East Coast or Southern problem exclusively, I must disagree.

If people are angry because they can't keep up with their neighbors in material possessions, then tough sh**!! Quit being a consumer and return to being a human. Then you might realize that this anger is often about wants rather than needs. You might also realize you are not as poor as you think!