It’s that silver spoon

I’m pretty good at spotting a Type A personality and compassionless person across the room, and Mr. Ashton Miller III’s recent letter sure rang the bell.

There are those out there, Mr. Miller, who have not had the luxury of being born into a successful family you allude to, as you quoted: “We own numerous businesses … my grandfather buys a new Mercedes every other year

… should my family vacation be in Branson instead of Hawaii”?

You also go on to state that you entice your employees with a bonus to take fewer than three days sick leave a year. What fun it must be working next to someone who has come to work hacking their lungs out who then gets to go home and pass it along to their entire family. I’m sure you see it as “by God, we’re still cranking out the widgets so grandpappy, go ahead and pick out the color for that new Mercedes and let’s book that flight to Hawaii!”

Granted, there are some out there who can’t break the cycle of poverty, but the overwhelming majority of people want to work and be paid a livable wage that would afford them the luxury of taking any type of vacation or simply being able to not have to work a second job.

This is not some conjecture I came up with on my own, sir; I worked for six years as a consultant with them in the Arkansas Delta.

Talk to a hardworking, family oriented man who mangled his arm working in a lumber yard for minimum wage whose employer (like yourself) offered no health benefits and is suddenly faced with $30,000 in medical bills. That man, Mr. Ashton Miller III, deserves our help, and shame on any of us who would deny it to him. RUSSELL LEMOND

Little Rock