We're building jobs here, not a canal

James P. Gray's story ("Minimum wages: you can't fake reality (forever)," Feb. 4) about a Soviet worker using a non-functioning vacuum cleaner to vacuum the rugs of a Moscow hotel each day reminded me of one of the most famous anecdotes attributed to the late economist and brilliant gadfly, Milton Friedman. Dr. Friedman recalled traveling to an Asian country in the 1960s and visiting a worksite where a new canal was being built. He was shocked to see that, instead of modern tractors and earth movers, the workers were using shovels. He asked why there were so few machines. The government bureaucrat explained: "You don't understand. This is a jobs program" - to which Dr. Friedman replied: "Oh, I thought you were trying to build a canal. If it's jobs you want, then you should give these workers spoons, not shovels."