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The Citizen, 1989-02-08, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1989. PAGE 5. Nearly 40 Brussels and area pre-schoolers are getting a head start in life by learning to socialize with their peers in the safe and happy environment of the Brussels Playschool, held three days a week in the basement of the public library. Operated by trained child care worker Barb Mutter, the playschool is the only one of its kind in a Assistant Brenda Linton joins Lee Dilworth, left, and Heather Armstrong in listening to a story during a very special part of their day at the Brussels Playschool. Huron County village, and could well be the envy of many larger communities across the province. Many kindergarten teachers say that playschool or day-care ‘gradu­ ates’ are usually easily recogniz­ able as they enter the formal school system because of their superior ability in getting along with their classmates, one of the earliest lessons which must be mastered in the journey toward mature adult­ hood. Mrs. Mutter has been operating the playschool for the past six years, taking over in response to the urgent need of local mothers when the facility was threatened with closure upon the reitrement of its founder, Jane MacDonald. The facility is regularly inspected and licensed by the Ministry of Com­ munity and Social Services, and may accommodate up to 16 child­ ren at a time. “Classes” are held for two hours each on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from October to May, and are structured to meet the needs of the three- and four-year- olds who clamor to attend. One child’s mother volunteers as Mrs. Mutter’s helper at each session, so that the ratio of children to adults never exceeds 6 to 1, following COMSOC’s guidelines. The school is largely supported by user fees, set at $4 or less per child per day, and has also been aided by generous donations from both the Brussels Optimists and the Brussels Lions Club, both of which recognize the social value to the community of the facility. “You’ll certainly never get rich at this job,” Mrs. Mutter laughs. “But I love doing it, and I love seeing the kids grow up. It’s nice to know we may have helped some of them along the way.” Growing up easy Photostory by Toby Rainey Kendall Jutzi patiently awaits her turn in the “Friendship Walk” as Mrs. Mutter leads [from leftj Jeff Linton, Lesley Pepper, Heather Armstrong, Lee Dilworth, Melissa Badley and Richelie Jorristma in the game. Consumer feels helpless as final link of inflation chain Continued from page 4 This can be also expressed in the supply failing to keep up with demand but whichever it is, the result is higher prices. A good example is if you fly to Europe in the busy season you will find that you will pay more than if you fly in the off season. For most of our history we have had to contend with only this demand-pull inflation. However, as our society became more complex, we started to suffer from yet another type which we call “cost- push.” This came with the mono­ polistic or near-monopolistic power of labour unions and large corpora­ tions which were able to pass on price increases. The end person in this chain is, you guessed it, the consumer who wasn’t able to push them on to anybody and conse­ quently felt rather helpless when price increases showed up in the stores. Since either or both of these types of inflation exercised a different level of intensity in differ­ ent segments of the economy, the distortions which I mentioned star­ ted to take place and so some people suffered more than others and some even managed to benefit from it all. The net result, never­ theless, is a lot of tension and uncertainty in society as everybody tries to come to grips with the current rise in prices and guess what is going to happen in the near future. These distortions come, even though for some people their wages or income may be running head of the rate of inflation. For this reason even the winners are faced with uncertainty which is, by the way, small consolation to those in the losers’ category. The scope of this article is such that I cannot go into all the mechanisms which are used by individuals to combat inflation but I will suggest a few. One way is to try to buy things when supply runs ahead of demand since that is when the prices are likely to be lowest. An example of this is buying Christmas cards after the holidav when they are available tor aoout halt the price. Try to shop when nobody else is if it means paying less for your purchases. Another thing is to look at the acquisition of articles which are likely to increase in value faster than the price level rises. Whether they realize it or not, homeowners fall into this category; some people like to buy gold and I have just seen a report that over the past 10 years this well known commodity has risen in value more than the price level in all the industrialized coun­ tries including Canada. For people w'no are. ior examoi^, on fixed income there are no real answers since, for them moving out of the loser into the winner class is just about impossible. You can rule out lotteries as a solution; the odds against winning a major prize are so bad the government should be ashamed to even have the lottery. It is small comfort to near tnat the people of Gt. Britain and Spain, to name two countries, are experi­ encing greater inflation than we are in Canada. Most of the developed countries enjoy a lower rate than we do with Holland and Japan enjoying increases of less than one percent. As far as avoiding infla­ tion is concerned, there is a great deal of truth in the old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound ot cure. In short we should learn to stop it just hen it is getting started!