David Frum   The America We've Lost  Bob Patterson reminds us of
the world we have lost - and that millions of Americans still
regret:  When the Philadelphia Electric Co. hired my father as
an engineer in 1946, little did the freshly minted graduate of
Tufts University and the Navy V-12 program realize that he had
hit the jackpot.  For the next 41 years, he and his wife would
prosper from a rarity today: remarkable job stability, regular
salary increases, and gold-standard benefits that enabled them -
on a single "family wage" - to raise five children and send them
to college. Moreover, his coveted compensation package was
graced with a defined-benefit pension and health-care coverage
at retirement for him and my mom, including survivor's benefits
after he passed away.  Granted, my father held a college degree;
yet the blue-collar unionized workforce at Peco enjoyed the same
employment security, wage hikes, and generous benefits. Nor was
my dad's experience out of the ordinary: his counterparts at
AT&T and GE