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   Vol.64/No.39            October 16, 2000 
 
 
The Great Society
 
BY HARRY RING  
Capitalist education--(1)"In Southern California, students skip lunch and delay going to the bathroom because the lines are longer than the lunch period. Rushing to get to class on time, students fight their way through narrow doors and cramped hallways"--Los Angeles Times.

Education (Cont.)--"For many students, school has become a matter of survival of the fittest... As surging campus environments continue to squeeze classroom space, throughout the state, many students say they spend more energy navigating crowds and coping with cramped conditions than learning.--Los Angeles Times.

Those gold-paved streets-- "High tech's passport to nowhere. Lured to U.S. jobs with special visas, immigrants often face substandard pay and uncertain status. Now their lot may gets worse."--News headline.

Caring for some--California builders have found a new pocket-lining niche--senior housing for the wealthy. Like "assisted housing" units in Beverly Hills for widowed folks who don't want to rattle around in the big old house, but don't want to leave the neighborhood. Rents start at $3,800 a month.

And, of course, meanwhile-- "In Southern California, about 750,000 workers earn the state's minimum wage of $5.75 an hour full time, about $12,000 a year. There's a need for a variety of housing types, including senior apartments for independent living, facilities for assisted living, and less grim nursing homes."--News item. Same day.

Want to ensure the best care?--A Turkish woman living 21 years as a legal resident in Germany was denied a necessary heart transplant because her German wasn't good enough. Her daughter, stepped forward as a translator, so far to no avail. Her daughter declared, "It smacks simply of racism."

A confident imperialism?--It was revealed that the Italian army has a supply of military apparel on hand big enough to dress soldiers for 3,000 years. A portion, however, is in children's sizes. This may suggest that the garment contractors enjoyed inside info on coming draft plans, or simply a concern to save cloth.  
 
 
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