Enough already!
Can't handle the $25/hr job? Then don't take it! I have a trash can icon on
the top left of my (paid for Eudora Pro) e-mail software. Look for something
like it on your software - and use it!
Your chiding abuse of someone offering a project for payment is reminiscent
of the  missionary approach - applying your value system to everyone on the
planet for the sake of 'saving them'.

I make my living in the industrial control field (have for some 16 years),
and yet I will take on work for less than cost if I get to learn something,
or if I value the opportunity to get into a different market, or to fill a
scheduling void, or to demonstrate a capability with an eye to future
projects etc. etc.
I hope you get the idea of my pointing out a universe of possible reasons
for taking on a job or a project, rather than expecting this to be an attack
on your high-minded value judgement of what's good for us. And from a
business point of view, ever heard of marginal overhead contribution? Makes
a heck of a difference at the end of the year!

And another observation: You technical heads take a way-too-hardline
approach when it comes to the monetary aspects. Take on work because you
want to do it! The money will come. As has been pointed out by others on
this thread, there are many possible outcomes affecting your
actual-really-worked hourly rate. Prove yourself, make sure you can relate
(and do the job). Make yourself invaluable, and then you will be! You will
never know how many opportunities are blowing by you with this "I'm worth
this much period attitude". If you absolutely can't stand the thought of
other people getting rich on your work, simple, just screw it up and they
will go broke!

And one more thing while I'm at it: After six years of running my own
operation (after some strategic mind bending) I decided that we needed a
third client group. In our position the pipe lines made a lot of sense. It
took three years of active promotion, site visits, proposals and demos to
land the first job. I would have gladly done the first job for free if I had
got an invite!

Just a thought, possibly an add-on to John Dammeyers e-mail by-line could be:
Pioneers are the ones, face down in the mud, with arrows in their backs.
Missionaries are the ones proven wrong by the next generation.
Anyone for add ons? Maybe definitions for engineers, techs, clients, salesmen...

Hugo