Well, just another week like so many that have been unfolding for months now at the end of the Bush administration. I see where Circuit City just announced this afternoon it is closing down its remaining 567 stores. Net result? Its 30,000 employees will lose their jobs.
But not to fret. It's not all bad news.
Maybe those workers can get jobs building nuclear powered aircraft carriers and attack submarines. I see where we just launched another aircraft carrier to fight terrorism last weekend. Christened the George H. W. Bush, it came at a cost of $6.2 billion. Subs and AC carriers count as infrastructure, right?
Mall or Meds? Who cares? It's the Soldier Family Care Clinic - a $42.5 millioncenter at Biggs Army Airfield scheduled to be in operation by mid-2010.
(Courtesy of El Paso Times and Beaumont Army Medical Center)
Thank God for Defense spending with all the Circuit City's and KB-Toys closing down. Why, in today's El Paso Times there was a picture of the ground breaking for Fort Bliss' latest Family Care Clinic. At a cost of $42.5 million dollars, we are told it will have the distraction of a magnificent view!
That's all part of $5.3 billion the government is spending here on Ft. Bliss! (Yes, that's $billion with a "b" as in beaucoup $bills.) I can see where this war on terror is a real boon to the local economy. May we never win it!
Finally, I learned late this morning Tom is dead. Tom was a contractor who did some tiling for us and remodeled our bathrooms in recent years. But he was also a friend. In his mid-fifties, he was suddenly feeling very poorly these past few days. Currently doing some work in the home of a nurse, she urged him to see a doctor. But he just passed her suggestion off. That's because Tom didn't have insurance.
Tom's wife, who had lost her job several months ago, recently found a new one. But the health insurance she could have purchased through her new employer would have cost more than she was making.
Tom did nice work. And I'm not saying if he had had insurance, he might still be alive today. Yet one has to wonder.
Anyway, I suspect Tom and his wife saved a bundle by not having health insurance. Of course, it may have come at a cost. His life.
But hey, such is the way of life in America, right? Yet I can't help ponder if Tom might still be alive if he were Canadian, English or a Swede?
2 comments:
so sorry to learn about your friend, Dada. 50's is way too young to go. the health ins conundrum is a uniquely american story ... makes me so unproud.
What a sad story. True though.... non family friendly corporate plans make adding a family member take most of your wages--- and then that can come with steep co pays. Just read about a company that shifted their insurance plan to "save money for the employees" and keep premiums down, by making it a $1000 deductible- out of pocket before the policy pays a dime.
Sadly people in America are literally dying for decent health care.
Sorry for your loss.
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