Fucked up priorities

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, Apr. 13, 2003
Congress Passes $79 Billion Bill to Pay for War
By DAVID FIRESTONE

WASHINGTON, April 12 ? Congress approved a $79 billion bill to pay for the 
war in Iraq today, sending President Bush even more money than he requested 
last month but refusing to grant the administration wide latitude to spend it.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/international/worldspecial/13COST.html

===

NY Times Magazine, Apr. 13, 2003
Commute to Nowhere
By JONATHAN MAHLER

(clip)

In 1999, Lou Casagrande, a graduate of Brown University with a Ph.D. in 
chemistry from Stanford and an M.B.A. from Long Island University, quit his 
job as a scientist at Northrop Grumman to take a position as an 
information-technology consultant in Warren, N.J. Lou and his wife, Janet, 
found a four-bedroom Colonial in nearby Summit with a big backyard that 
would allow them to expand and still have room in back for their three 
kids. The mortgage was a stretch. At his salary of $100,000 a year, the 
roughly $2,700 monthly payment represented 45 percent of his take-home pay. 
But, as Lou says, ??at that time, I was imagining an ever-increasing 
salary, ever-increasing stock options and all those wonderful things.??

It?s a sunny afternoon, and I?m sitting with Lou and Janet in the small 
living room of their white-shingled house on a quiet street talking about 
how they?re managing. Lou was laid off in June 2001. At the time, he 
figured he?d be out three to six months tops. Twenty-two months later, he?s 
still looking.

When G.D.P. growth resumed in the fourth quarter of 2001, Lou, like many 
economists, figured the worst was over. More than a year later, the 
unemployment picture for all workers remains bleak. Nationwide, more jobs 
were lost last February than in any single month since November 2001. We 
are in the worst hiring slump in 20 years.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/magazine/13UNEMPLOYED.html?



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