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The Citizen, 1986-01-08, Page 4Experts say farmers must explore new ways of increasing their efficiency. • r7 PAGE 4. THE LIITMN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 1986. C).-ZAT-1 0 No easy judgements The Canadian economy did much better than expected in 1985 which led one business leader to comment in a year-end comentary that there were jobs for anyone who wanted one. The gentleman pointed out, as proof of his observation, that there were about seven pages of help wanted advertisements in most newspapers in larger communities. Unfortunately it was the kind of glib generalization that businessmen are too often fond of. For one thing even if every advertisement ran to about 15 words, there would be room for only 2800 help wanted ads in a newspaper like the Toronto Star. Many of those run for several days in a row. It would take 2800 new jobs every day for many weeks to accommodate all the people in a huge city like Toronto looking for work. We are, after all, talking about more than a million people who are out of work officially in this country and perhaps many more who have run out of employment insurance and have dropped from the official unemployed listings. It's so easy for those who are employed, for those doing quite nicely thank you, to think that we have earned everything that we have and that therefore, the people less fortunate who are out of work or about to face loss of a farm or business, somehow deserve what they get. After a decade and more of "caring" we're tired of feeling guilty about what we have. We want to sit back, congratulate ourselves on our own hard work and intelligence and blame the less fortunate, whether they are in this country or abroad, for their own condition. This kind of thinking leads to the easy solution that if we'd just cut off unemployment insurance we would rid the country of unemployment. It would force all those lazy, shiftless people to go out and get a job. Yet experts at the same time, are predicting that the country will have to live with long-term dislocation and unemployment because computers and robots are going to displace many workers, particularly the young. The current trend of government is to cut back on social support for the unfortunate at the exact time when we are saying that there will be more people unemployed. The business community wants it both ways: three ways really. They want the government to cut spending particularly on things like unemployment insurance, at the same time they are automating and throwing thousands of people out of work. At the same time they're also demanding the government do a better job of training people to meet the needs of industry and commerce. In addition to the reaction of business, there's the attitude of the public in general and the growing gap between the middle-class and lower-income people, even those who are employed. Despite unemployment levels that were near record levels, this Christmas saw a spending binge on expensive items like stereo sets, video cassetee recorders and microwave ovens like never before. A recent survey showed that the rich expect to continue to get richer and poor expect to stay poor. As long as income increases stay on a percentage basis, those who make $40,000 and more will continue to build a bigger and bigger gap between themselves and the people who earn less than $20,000 a year. The fortunate can continue to be smug and blame the problems of the poor on the poor but they are only postponing reality. So much for predictions The end of one year and the beginning of another brought the usual flood of wrapups of 1985 and predictions for 1986 the former of which show how little importance we should attach to the latter. Who of the year end predictors made a prediction a year ago there there would be a Liberal government in Ontario, let alone that the government would have the highest popularity rating of any government in the country? Who among the predictors of New Year's 1985, some of whom saw at least a decade of Tory rule in Ottawa guaranteed, would have predicted Brian Mulroney's party would be virtually tied with the Liberals under John Turner in the polls? Who would have predicted a year ago that the economy would have recovered enough in urban areas to see a record Christmas shopping binge? Who would have predicted that the drought conditions in Africa would have improved to the point that, though there are still problems in isolated areas, the whole continent will be self-sufficient in agricultural produce for the year? The only predictable thing about the coming year is its unpredictability. The greatest danger we face is from people who take current trends and extend them far into the future. Listen to predictors, for instance, and there won't be room for us all to have a place to stand on the planet because of over-population. Listen to predictors and all Canadians will be living in cities in the new century. The very human aspect of human is, however, that we aren't predictable. We change and we change the world. No bad trend is so bad that we can't turn it around. There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel's Grill where the greatest minds in the town (if not in the country) gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering Society. Since notjust everyone can partake of these deliberations, we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Julia Flint didn't have any butter on her toast with her coffee this morning. As a matter of fact, she passed up the toast altogether. She's worried about her waistline, she said. Hank Stokes said she should come back in her next life as a farm animal. Funny, she says, farmers breed to get cattle that convert feed better but with humans, we want people whose bodies are in- efficient. Julia said she guessed he meant well comparing her to a cow. Ward Black said that Hank had it all wrong, that we were breeding bigger people all the time. Every generation seemed to get bigger than its parents. Given the current trend to build smaller cars and smaller computers and smaller apartments, it makes sense if we build smaller, more efficient peo- ple, he said. If we could shrink people down to three feet instead of six feet, we could put twice as many floors in every building without making the building bigger. We could fit more people into elevators and busses and subway trains. Billy Bean said the whole idea made so much sense it's a wonder some politician hadn't passed a bill to make it compulsory. "Sort of metrification of people" he said. Hank Stokes said it all made sense: that's why the Japanese were so dominant in manufactur- ing these days because they were already smaller and more efficient. "It's a wonder some American politician hasn't decided this is an Letters to the editor are one of the ways a community can have access to many points of view. However, letters to the editor are subject to a few basic rules: 1. All letters must be signed. In some cases there may be just reason that a writer may not want his/her name to appear in the paper with the letter but the letter must bear the signature of the writer when it arrives. Unsigned letters will be discarded. 2. We reserve the right to edit letters to meet the available space and to prevent possibly libelous statements from being published. [640523 Ontario Inc. ] Serving Brussels, Biyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. P.O. Box 152, P.O. Box 429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. NOG 1H0 NOM 1H0 887-9114 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00 foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 4 p.m. Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston unfair trade advantage for the Japanese and slapped a counter- vailing duty on it," Tim O'Grady cracked. "Then he could tell the Japanese to either grow up and act like real Americans or forget about trading with the U.S." THURSDAY: Ward Black is al- ways worrying about how he and town council can get the town moving, get the population up and business cooking. Tim O'Grady had a suggestion for him today. Tim said he'd been watching this television show about a town out in Iowa where some Indian Swami had moved in and built some big temples and all his followers started coming into meditate twice a day. Now the little town is the home for all these businessmen who say meditation can make you rich and they're out to-prove it. The town has become the centre for a whole bunch of companies doing business right across the country. Ward wasn't too sure that we needed any more religions in town Since the churches we have are already half empty, we hardly need more competition. Julia Flint said she thought tourism might be the way to go. Even in winter there are things we could promote, she said. Some places have Christmas light shows that bring people for miles but judging from the way people were in such a hurry to get the Christmas decorations down, she said, maybe we could have a big race every year to see who in town could get rid of the last vestiges of Christmas the fastest. FRIDAY: Julia was talking about last night's hockey game between Canada and Russia (there used to be some surprise and indignation when Julia talked about hockey but people are resigned about it now). She says the Canadian coaches usually seem to come up with some sort of psychological ploy to get their team really going but this time she thinks they overdosed on Rambo or Rocky IV movies.