Hardly a day goes by that you don't read about this or that group of employees ending up on the "short end of the stick," or having no stick at all. There's no better examples of that, of course, than what happened to those employees of Enron, WorldCom and Tyco, who saw their company-stock-laden 401(k) retirement funds go down the drain (along with most of their jobs) following the meltdowns, with only the top brass making out like the robber barons of the late 19th century by cashing in their chips beforehand.

Now, I might be wrong, but as far as I know the top performance artists- Enron's CEO, Ken Lay (and ex-CEO, Jeff Skelling); Tyco's CEO, Dennis Kozlowski; and WorldCom's former CEO, Bernie Ebbers- have yet to be indicted and led off in handcuffs like ImClone's Sam Waksal, and Adelphia's Rigas gang, who ripped-off enough loot to make Willie Sutton, the infamous bank robber in the 1930s, look like a petty thief. Hopefully, all of those corporate crooks and their cohorts in the accounting firms will be stripped of their ill- gotten fortunes and carted off to the"big house." But I'm not holding my breath, what with their close ties to many "biggies" in the Bush administration.

You'd have thought, that after all the bad press that many companies got for "burning their books" to cover their tracks, other corporations would've have studiously avoided falling into the same cesspool. While most may have, American Airlines executives still couldn't resist putting their greedy paws into the cookie jar when no one was looking.

But when the airline employees found out, a day after they'd agreed to annual cuts of $1.8 billion, that the company's board had recently created a pension fund to protect 45 executives' benefits in the event of a bankruptcy filing, and had approved bonuses for six of the high muck-a-mucks that would double their pay, they went ballistic and probably felt like storming into the boardroom and peppering 'em with paint balls. After being caught red-handed, the company graciously consented to dropping the bonus plan, but not the pension plan.

And a real lollapalooza was when, out of a clear blue sky, Bethlehem Steel dropped a huge, heartbreaker bomb on 95,000 retirees (20,000 in the Baltimore area) by terminating their health care and insurance benefits on March 31. And so far, the union has failed to find a large insurer to commit to offering favorable group rates for the retirees. To make matters worse, Bethlehem Steel has warned its present and former employees that its pension plan may be terminated, which, if it happens, would top the list of the largest failed pension plans throughout the country.

In seeing a picture in the paper of retirees and family members attending a union meeting in Dundalk, looking as forlorn as castaways on a deserted island, it immediately brought to mind an article I read that same day, describing how the former CEO of HealthSouth had appeared in a district court to request that the judge "unfreeze" his assets (worth about $175 million), which had been frozen by the government for his having put together the scheme that led to a $2.5 billion fraud at that rehabilitation giant.

His contended that he needed (are you ready for this?) a minimum of $60 million for living expenses, plus another $60 million for attorneys fees. I bet the judge needed smelling salts in hearing that, and I only wish I had been a mouse with a glandular problem in that courtroom, so I could've run up his trousers and do-you know what- on his leg.

And I couldn't help but think how many prescription drugs, hearing aids, dentures and glasses his stolen money could buy for those retirees at Bethlehem Steel who need them, but who can no longer afford to pay for such necessities.

Jimmy Carter was right on in saying "Life isn't fair." And, in considering what we've witnessed over the last several years of the corruption in corporate America, and the human tragedies it spawned in millions of lives, it was a gross understatement.