I don't have the book, I'm afraid, but I'm still unaware of any specific claim by Reagan that ATC controllers were "overpaid." I had also only remembered Reagan's support from the Teamsters. (I may be practically the only poster on Flyer Talk, by the way, to have heard Jimmy Hoffa speak; he visited my high school to give a talk on education, a more than slight irony that he himself wryly pointed out.)

On another subject, why, oh why, does Gary think it's worth posting about the "37 Rental Cars" trip report ten days after it went up? Ben, too? (Sharp folks like the posters here will notice that my congratulations missed being the first by four minutes.) Maybe the assumption is that readers know nothing?

Personally, I've always taken the position that talking down to people is a mistake. At least some of them are bound not to be idiots and, as Lincoln once observed in a somewhat related context, actions based on any contrary assumption are bound to come to grief sooner or later.