A “labor shortage” in Bar Harbor (BDN, May 27)? What we have is not a shortage but an industry refusing to pay market price for labor. I’m sure Bar Harbor business owners understand and appreciate the principles of the market system well enough to raise their rates for rooms, food and T-shirts when the demand is up. When it comes to labor, they would apparently prefer a feudal system with some docile serfs to do the work.

It is hypocritical for business people to preach the virtues of the free market system and then refuse to participate in the market when it involves providing the wages, benefits, and working conditions needed to attract workers. There are plenty of hard-working Maine people who would be glad to work in Bar Harbor if the pay and working conditions were worthwhile. I know that some small business people think they have a God-given right to cheap labor but the Bangor Daily News shouldn’t dignify their whining with the annual summer article about their self-inflicted “shortage.”

John Alexander

Old Town