There is a huge difference between receiving a contract and fulfillingit, and a competitive day-to-day operations of a small, wild-roamingbusiness that needs to get a capricious customer to spend his/hers own honestly earned money.
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what about not so honestly earned money? :-)

so then you of all people should have been supportive of thestimulus package which allowed many of your capricious customers keeptheir jobs and continue spending their "honestly earned" money at yourplace of business.

furthermore, it seems like you almost begrudge Julia her"connections"... I find this especially ironic because you yourself(and many others here) continuously write about the equal opportunitiesand the fairness of the free market... using your own argument, what's preventing you from establishing the same professional connections and forming a similar business?