[PEN-L:28264] Changing values

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

   NY Times, July 21, 2002


   Corporate Bad Guys Make Many Seek the Road Less Traveled

*By RACHEL LEHMANN-HAUPTand WARREN ST. JOHN*

Just three years ago, Ameet Shah, 24, was successfully laying the
groundwork for life as a corporate titan. After graduating from Duke
University, he had landed a $50,000-a-year job in New York at J. P.
Morgan Chase, working 100-hour weeks on deals involving companies like
Enron and Kmart. But no sooner had Mr. Shah settled into the perks of
his new career -- expense accounts, car services and enough cash to
support an apartment in a doorman building -- than his world was shaken
by a market downturn and a stream of stories about corporate
malfeasance. The deals -- and the perks -- dried up, many of his
colleagues were fired, and Mr. Shah got a peek at capitalism's dark side.

"I saw people who put 15 years of service into the company get laid off
in a day because of the irresponsible behavior of corporate executives,"
he said. "I started thinking that I didn't want to be associated with that."

Mr. Shah's disillusionment eventually became so complete that in June --
sometime between the indictment of L. Dennis Kozlowski, the chairman of
Tyco, for tax fraud and the news that WorldCom had improperly accounted
for $3.8 billion in expenses -- he quit J. P. Morgan Chase and joined
Teach for America. He now lives in a dorm room and teaches summer school
in a classroom without air-conditioning in the South Bronx, training to
earn $35,000 a year.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/21/fashion/21KIDS.html

--

Louis Proyect
www.marxmail.org