Louis Uchitelle

At 150 Edgars Lane, Changing the Idea of Home

The handsome Tudor-style home at 150 Edgars Lane, built for less than $10,000 in 1925 on a hillside in this Hudson River town, never seemed to change much through all of its previous owners. Each family updated the house, but in modest ways until Tom and Julie Hirschfeld came along. The Hirschfelds purchased the two-story house with its gabled roof and stucco-and-wood-beam exterior for $890,000 in the fall of 2002. Good schools, safe streets, a picturesque community, like-minded neighbors, a relatively short commute to New York -- all these drew the family, just as they drew the previous owners.

Two Tiers, Slipping Into One

Article in series Rewriting the Social Contract: Barriers to Middle-Class Pay; longstanding wage advantage that manufacturing workers enjoy over their counterparts in services or construction is shrinking fast as older workers depart, at Caterpillar and at other companies; United Auto Workers union at Caterpillar reluctantly accepted two-tier contract that provides significantly lower wages and benefits for newly hired employees; new second tier is as much as $20 per hour below cost for older workers; trade-off is promise of manufacturing revival at long last in old Rust Belt, as new hires come aboard at much lower labor costs; even healthy and highly profitable companies like Caterpillar are engaging in practice of two-tier wage structure; longstanding presumption that factory workers at successful companies can achieve secure, relatively prosperous middle-class life for themselves and their families is evaporating; Caterpillar chief executive Jim Owens says lowering wages has allowed company to add jobs; graph; photos (L)

Men Not Working, and Not Wanting Just Any Job

Millions of men are turning down jobs they think beneath them or cannot find work for which they are qualified.

Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices

Article in series on executive compensation, Gilded Paychecks, examines two-tier income stratum that has developed in growing number of professions and occupations since 1990's; finds doctors, lawyers and bankers are collecting much larger fees than others in their fields for their work on business deals and cases; finds many moving from academia to Wall Street, and growing number of entrepreneurs seeing windfalls tied largely to expanding financial markets that draw on capital from around world; experts say growing difference in compensation is diverting people from some critical fields; in medicine, where some specialties pay far more than others, nation lacks enough doctors in family practice; doctors have become so interested in business side of medicine that more than 40 medical schools have added optional fifth year of schooling for those who want to earn MBA degree as well as MD; some graduates go directly to Wall Street or into health care management without ever practicing medicine; photos (L)