If you're determined to see what you want to see, you'll always manage
to see it, Ken. You asked about my motivations, and I told you.
You're adding a lot of context from your own head to get where you want
to go -- that I'm one of the "PITA"s you deal with.

I'm sympathetic, actually. I know plenty of people who treat tradesmen
and GCs disrespectfully and I know that I don't.

You'll notice that in the other thread you're referencing, I asked here
*first* what a reasonable expectation about the cabinets was before
pushing back with the contractor because this group provides a wealth
of advice from experienced people.
What's more, when my fears turned out to be unfounded, I promptly
posted that right in the thread. See for yourself.

What's more, it's easy enough to see everything I've ever posted to
this group through groups.google.com, and you'll see the same
respectful attitude.

This is nothing more than an honest question about going wages for
carpenters, all carpenters. I've learned a lot about your side of the
business from other people's responses (including Steve B's). For what
it's worth, it wasn't my intention to demand the GC pay the carpenter
something different. I might tip the carpenter more at the end
depending on what I learn, and I'll certainly consider the matter when
recommending the GC to other people, but I accept the things I can't
change.

I talk to people regularly at the corporate level of the construction
supplies industry in my job and one thing I've been hearing for a
couple years now is that with housing starts shooting through the roof,
good carpenters are very hard to get. Naturally, I wonder why my
carpenter's wages aren't climbing.

Cheers,

CCS