And finally, some good news…
February 24, 2006
Working in a slaughterhouse has long been considered the most dangerous job in America. Eric Schlosser described it as such in Fast Food Nation. It's miserable, dangerous, low-paying work, and turnover through injury is incredibly high.
So it's all the more exciting that eight workings in a Nebraska ConAgra meatpacking plant won the largest lotto jackpot ever this week.
Say what you will about the regressive-tax nature of the lottery, of the people who can least afford it spending already scarce money every week on lotto tickets. But this is the way it should work.
After fleeing the war-torn Republic of Congo, Alain Maboussou found work at a Nebraska meatpacking plant. Now he plans to quit that job and return to school after winning part of a record $365 million Powerball jackpot.The eight winners will each take home about $15.5 million after taxes, but as of Thursday, only three of the winners had quit their jobs. If I won that much money, or even a small fraction of that amount, I don't know if I'd quit my job at AlterNet (y'know, unless I could afford that private tropical island), but if I worked for ConAgra? No question at all…
