A piece of ‘owner society’—“The number of employed workers 75 and over grew from 669,000 in 1994 to just under 1 million last year, according to Labor Dept. statistics. Those numbers will increase as the large baby boom generation ages.”—Los Angeles Times.
The sock-it-to-‘em society—About half of U.S. bankruptcies are by individuals and families afflicted by illness and clobbered by medical bills. According to a Harvard study, three-quarters of those who went belly-up had health insurance—at least at the start.
How civilized can they get?—The Pentagon said it has issued a rule barring the use of military dogs in “abusing” prisoners. The asserted no-no on the use of dogs stemmed from trying to cope with bitter charges by more than 300 Iraqi and Afghan prisoners.
Them GIs, always griping—“The Army said it has identified 129 wounded soldiers who mistakenly received bills for expenses upon returning home from combat.” An army spokesman said “the problems were discovered by an audit team after several [several?] complaints. One involved a soldier from New York who lost an arm in Iraq and was told he owed $1,800. He had expected a check for $4,500.”—USA Today.
Color-blind—“London—In 1972 the Institute of Race Relations asked the MoD [Ministry of Defense] how many coloured servicemen there were. The Navy and the RAF [Royal Air Force] said they took no notice of colour. The Army said that it had no statistics, but an internal memo showed that doctors used facial features to dub recruits North European, Mediterranean, Asiatic, African or Negroid, or Other.”—The Times, London.
Social security—The House of Commons of the UK parliament wants to know why the Prince of Wales is exempt from business taxes. Like his 140,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall. The take is about $20 million a year. Which clarifies a snap we heard on TV. Asked if she would like to be known as the Princess of Wales, his bride-to-be said no, she would prefer to be known as the Duchess of Cornwall.
Sort of a mix-up?—Quietly unannounced, General Motors has sliced prices on SUVs and other models. Price cuts range up to $2,000. “This is part of an effort to remain competitive,” a GM spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile—Toyota announced plans to build two new assembly plants in North America over the next five years. The Japanese cars and trucks have broken sales records nine years in a row.
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