Japanese Work Harder

In “U.S. Workers Can Compete With Japanese” (Sept. 8) John F. Lawrence shows that he’s much too familiar with statistics, but unaware of reality.

Japanese people do their work like Americans did before World War II. Since that time, Americans have become too interested in material things, don’t care about the quality of their work, do as little of it as they can and expect hefty paychecks for all those coffee breaks and absenteeism.

This country has really gone to pieces, with too many children unable to read or write (unheard of in my childhood, and indicative that education ain’t what it used to be), and the national deficit increasing so alarmingly that one day soon conditions here will make the Great Depression look like the good old days. But the bottom line is: We don’t and won’t compete with Japanese workers until Americans no longer have it too easy. And all that crazy money being spent on more weapons of destruction than we could ever possibly use. What this country needs are some good, old-fashioned brains in its leaders, who presently seem to have none.

DELICIA BRACEGIRDLE

Carson