Opinion
Page 4
University Daily Kansan, January 19. 1983
Cuts too much,too soon
Members of the Kansas House Ways and Means Committee were warned Monday that the state was running out of funds for general assistance benefits and that up to 6,000 people might need to be cut from state welfare rolls.
The chairman of the committee, State Rep. William Bunten, R-Topeka, said a proposal to drop from the program able-bodied people between the ages of 18 and 51 who had no dependents would probably be approved by the Legislature.
The general assistance program, aimed at those who do not qualify for Aid to Dependent Children or federally funded Supplemental Security income, assists more than 12,000 people.
Few would disagree that some of them could, and should, make due without the benefits. And, after all, if there is no money available — well, there is no money.
Surely there is some alternative, however, to simply chopping the roll in half. The proposal demands too much, too suddenly.
Many of those who would be cut from the program are simultaneously being hit by cuts in education that prevent them from being educated or trained for new employment and by decreasing funds for Aid to Dependent Children benefits that may make day care for children more costly for parents than not working.
Thus far, no alternatives to the sudden cut have been considered. Some must be found, however short term. The state cannot simply toss 6,000 residents $100 apiece, kiss them good-bye and expect anything but emotional and economic havoc for the families affected.
What do you know about economics, the subject that, with the possible exception of nuclear power a arms reduction, can spark the hottest arguments in capitals, cocktail parties and cornfields across the country and around the world? What do you know about current economic problems, which threaten to drastically alter our modern way of life?
Most people's answers go something like this: "What I know about economics you could fit into a thimble and still have room for the egos of all U.S. senators and congressmen."
"When it comes to economics, my brain is as vacant as an MX missile silo."
vacant as I know,
"What I know about economics my pet
toe is for lurch."
Each one of these statements is inevitably followed by a "but." Though almost everyone
JON BARNES
readily admits his ignorance of economies (supply and demand, market equilibrium, monetary and fiscal policy), most people are not quite so dumb when it comes to the economy (inflation, unemployment, budget deficits).
That's understandable. No matter how sophisticated or educated we become, we are still more affected by our senses and experiences than by our thoughts. We can feel the gnawing of inflation at our incomes and the despair of unemployment. We can see the red ink of budget deficits.
We know that when the economy was in good shape, our lives were more enjoyable. We strove for the good life by accumulating ever greater amounts of goods, and we usually had something left over to put away for a rainy day or for our children's college educations.
Let the kids read. We say we are more concerned with the simple pleasures of life. We eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and less meat because we want a healthier diet. It just happens that fruit and vegetables are less expensive than meat.
children's college courses. These days, however, the clouds of economic gloom have darkened the outlook and the feared rainy day is here. We find that our savings have dried up because the maximum amount of interest allowable by law was several points below the inflation rate. In bad times we strive only to survive. Let the kids fend for themselves.
Job satisfaction is more important than a raise in salary, although, happily, this helps keep our employers' costs down and our jobs more secure. Still we can't shake the yearning for those good old, carefree days of unlimited growth.
growth.
Perhaps the health craze and the increased emphasis on improvement of the quality of life are part of a genuine change of values. Maybe the imminent economic recovery will be led by the aerobic dancing and food health industries. It
doesn't matter what the revitalized economy produces as long as it does regain its health.
But keeping the economy healthy is the job of economic policy and, like g or not, government. And this is where our economic ignorance starts to show.
to snow.
In the past few years we have learned a lot about the economy. Everyone today knows about inflation, unemployment, high interest rates, government deficits and gross national product. And everyone, liberal or conservative, believes the government should do something to refuel the economy.
Liberals want the government to enact job-creating, demand-expanding policy. Conservatives wish the government would just get out of the way and stop melding in important
Exactly what should be done, we let our elected officials and their economic advisers decide. And our elected officials think exactly the way we do. That's why we elected them. Unfortunately, they have as little economic knowledge as we do.
knowledge as we do.
Wage-controls, WIN buttons, tax cuts,
tax increases, credit crunches, loose money,
supply-side economics, Reaganomics, trade
restrictions and government subsidies have been
tried during the past decade with little success.
All were billed as cures for the economic ills at the time. All have variously gained and lost political desirability, as reflected in election results
results.
But all these proposed remedies are lacking in one respect. They lack regard for the complexity of a $1 trillion economy.
We are a restless people. We are willing to tighten our belts today in anticipation of the banquet tomorrow. But if the banquet is postponed, we rebel.
The Reagan administration and the Republican Party touched on the problem with their maligned "stay the course" campaign slogan. While it is true that Reagan's policies, such as they are, have not had enough time to achieve the desired results, Reagan never forgot his presidential campaign that his policies would reward patience. He wouldn't have been elected if he had.
if he had.
The recession is a deep one and our economic problems lie much deeper. Our current concern must be economic recovery. But it must be recovery to a more stable economy, one which will not revert to spiraling inflation or an even deeper recession as a result of "quick-fix" policies.
The only way this can be accomplished is by increasing our knowledge of economics. Because the press is such an important source of information for most people, it must lead the way in increasing the general knowledge of economics.
economics:
The press, most of all, must be more informed in these matters, more diligent in its reporting of government's and business's manipulations of the marketplace, more questioning of the claptrap of most economic "experts."
KANSAN
The University Daily
The University Day Kannan USP$ 695-649 is published at the University of Kannan, 118 Fint Hall, Lawrence, Kannan, 60455, daily during the regular school year and Monday and Thursday during the summer sessions, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and final period. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kannan, 60443. Subscriptions by mail are $4 for six months or $2 a year in Douglas County and $15 for six months. Mail may be sent through the university activity fee (POSTMASTER). Send address changes to the University Day Kannan, 118 Flint Hall, Lawrence, Kannan, 60455.
Business Manager
Matthew P. Langan
John Oberzan
Paul Jess
Advertising Adviser General Manager and News Adviser
Editor Rebecca Chaney
Let's not forget Harry 'Nick' Rice
The other day, as I walked past the K.S. "Boots" Adams University Center on my way to enrollment, my mind adrift in a fog of impending financial reverse, I became aware of a sinister hiss at my heels. I turned to look and was somewhat revailed at what I beheld.
Crouched there, sucking the last bit of fire from a grimy hand rolled marijuana cigarette, was a creature, bizarre and yet somehow familiar.
Its long, unruly hair was shackled about its head by an old, paisley bandana. It sported an ancient pair of Levis held up by a cloth belt, buckled in the front beneath a die-cast metal peace sign.
peace仪
"What do you want?" I asked it. It motioned me aside, and gesturing towards the "Boots"
Adams Center, said. "It's a shame, you know."
"No, no!" It said, spitting a seed at the pavement in front of it. "It is a shame they didn't see fit to memorialize a name that we could have learned from, one that represented something other than wealth as a definition of success."
"What, you mean the new Alumni Center?" asked. "What is so shameful about that?"
I had to think for a minute. What cruel game was he playing?
"Let's face it, buddy, all that green stuff is what keeps this school going." I said. "Alumni such as 'Boots' Adams have ensured through the years that students at KU could obtain a superior education by contributing far more money than the state alone could provide. Why shouldn't the buildings they helped pay for have their names on them?"
"Oh," it said, "so the money wasn't a gift,
really, was it?" I mean, when someone gives
someone a gift, like a car or a pony, they don't
hang a plaque with their name on it from the
rear-view mirror."
rear-view mirror:
“Of course not,” I said. “That would be tacky.
Besides, 'Boots' Adams is not just an ordinary
girl, giving an ordinary gift. He worked his way
from ditch-digger to chief executive officer of Philips Petroleum. President Eisenhower once said that 'Boots' Adams' career was a ' notable example of foresight and hard work, bearing fruit under the free, competitive enterprise system of the United States.'
"Why, he has even received KU's Distinguished Service Citation, the highest honor the University can bestow for outstanding achievement and service to humanity."
It shook its head and said, "Sure, but a lot of great guys have gone to KU and their names
MATTHEW BARTEL
aren't plastered on buildings around campus.
Take away the large donation, and what do you have? Just another nice guy, I say."
He scratched his head. "You don't understand. This is a University, where the next generation of leaders comes from. If we hold ourselves to inadequate ideals we can never reach our full potential. How can we ever show the children of our generation that success can be multiplied of ways if they merely emulate the ways who handed the University the biggest check?"
have? Just another mission: This conversation was beginning to be about as much fun a trip to the dentist. "So what?" I said. "Even if he wasn't the only one, he still was a nice guy. You make it sound like a crime to give money to the University."
It had a point. "All right, then, you name the building." I said. After all, who could it come up with who would be better than someone who was liked by Eisenhower?
"Not because he was a protester," it said, "but because of what he finally taught the community. His untimely death brought an end to the destruction of property and lives, not only disgruntled students and blacks in the community but by police bullets.
'He was an alumnus who really forced people to test their values and in the process broke down some of the walls that separated the people of the community.
community.
"He made people sit down, many of them for the first time, and ask themselves whether they were really doing the right thing. That is a lesson we would all do well to remember from time to time."
I turned back towards him to reply, but he was gone. I wanted to tell him how wrong he was, that Nick Rice was nothing but an unruly protester. But I had to decide, would that have been the right thing to do?
"Why not call it the Harry Nicholas 'Nick' Rice Alumni Center"? it said. "He was a nice guy, too, but he never got the chance to work his way to the top of a powerful company."
I blinked. Who? "Harry Nicholas" Nick' Rice. it said. "He was a KU student in 1969 and 1970, when this test was torn by the worst violence since Quanill's Raiders shot a cannon through the Hotel Eldridge. There were race riots at Lawrence High School, the Kansas Union was set on fire and Gov. Robert Docking declared a curfew in Lawrence.
surprise in Lawrence. "Then, in mid-July, a black man was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the police, touching off five days of unrest and violence. Niek Rice helped end that violence in a way he never intended to. He was shot, killed on the spot you're standing, not 20 yards from the front door of the new Alumni Center."
I stepped back. "You want to name the Alumni Center after a protester?" I asked in disbelief
The ordinance would have forced about 15,300 Lawrence residents to pick up the tab for an undetermined and unquantified group of low-income, disabled and elderly residents who would not have been able to pay their gas bills in this and future winters.
Lawrence Reserve. With enough rope, the Lawrence City Commission just might have hanged itself with the proposed Lifeline natural gas rate ordinance.
Lifeline rates an unnecessary evil
"I don't want nothing from nobody, and I don't intend to give nothing to who nobody who doesn't deserve." . . . said Kenneth Baldwin, 71-year-old Lawrence resident.
this and future waters.
Eye toward election day, several members of the commission must have felt the itch of the tightening noose. The commission voted last Tuesday to reverse its earlier support of the ordinance, and instead decided to study the matter some more. In effect, the commission killed it for now and probably killed it for good.
The reversal was an intelligent move. Phone
Bob
BONAR MENNINGER
There are people in this town who need, and legitimately deserve, a helping hand in getting the basics of food, shelter and heat. Nobody wants to see fellow citizens freezing in their
Why all the ruckus about a law that would increase gas bills an average of about 62 cents a month? Could it be that Lawrence is a town of heartless bastards? Not quite.
calls to Commissioner Don Binns were running 50-to-1 against the ordinance, and letters to a local newspaper were virtually unanimous in their condemnation of the proposal. A petition with more than 2,000 names on it opposing the ordinance was presented to the commission.
This fact was pointed out when more than $66,000 was raised through voluntary donations during two weeks in December through the Lawrence Warm Hearts fund drive.
The money will be used for the same purpose that the infamous tax was designed for, to defray the cost of gas heating, and it is a tribute to the generosity of this town that such a large amount of money was raised voluntarily in such a short time. The amount raised was almost three times the original goal of $25,000.
Since Dec. 20, $13,000 of the fund has been allocated to individuals in need by the Lawrence Emergency Services Council.
respond again, voluntarily.
Unlike the surcharge, the spontaneous Warm Hearts program allowed people the opportunity to give and feel good about giving, as opposed to
Maybe the remaining $83,000 will last through the winter. Maybe not. But you can bet that if more money is needed, this community will respond again, voluntarily.
mandatory generosity and having the goods extracted by a pious city government.
The commission's attempt, at least for several weeks, at driving home this socialist legislation revealed its cavalier disdain for the wishes of the community. Lawrence likes to think of itself as progressive, and there is nothing wrong with legislation which looks to the needs of the community and offers a solution, providing it is equitable and logical.
Unfortunately, hard times are here, and for each person who would have qualified for assistance under Lifeline, there might very well have been ten who did not, but are scraping by Nonetheless, they are getting by on their own.
Nonetheless, they are greatly important. The net result of this fractas has been further erosion of respect for, and belief in the competence of the city's government, which has already been unimpeded by recent events including the 600' lassachusetts St. parking-lot power grab, and the attempted recall of Commissioner Tom Gleason.
Commissioner Tom Creusner. The city has once again been needlessly divided through the shortsighted, emotionally top-heavy approach of the commission.
top-heavy approver of the heat gas. The real issue is not how will the poor pay for gas, but why anyone should have to pay the outrageous rates now being charged by the corporate bandits who supply natural gas to this area.
area.
Under a shroud of numbers, the gas suppliers feel they are justified in raising rates 35 percent over last year.
over last year. Do they honestly expect the people to sit back, raise and get screwed? Wouldn't it be great if the whole city of Lawrence stopped paying its gas bills? With incoming capital trickling to a pittance, maybe the suppliers would listen to reason.
reason.
Somebody has to do something. The city government appears to think that by treating symptoms it will somehow cure the disease. If the city's leaders are not able to stop these corporations from bleeding our city and our state white, then the public itself should think about ways of turning back the gas industry.