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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1991-12-04, Page 59 Arthur Black THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1991. PAGE 5. Plastic, plastic everywhere Just between you, me and that life-size cut-out of Karl Malden ... could you live without credit cards? I could. For about 30 days — 28 if it's February and a leap year. I hate to admit it, but credit cards have got me sewn up, nailed down and also treble-hooked through the lower mandible. And I'm not alone. Most adult Canucks are packing plastic these days. A couple of years ago, a study by Royal Trustco Limited indicated there was somewhere between 13 million and 14 million credit cards fluttering around in the Canadian economy. Fifty percent of Canadian credit card holders pay off their balances every month. The other hapless half keeps wracking up the charges and getting further and further behind the financial 8 ball. It's ironic just how ubiquitous -- and how ^International Scene Pity the poor farmer BY RAYMOND CANON If it is one group of people for which I have a great deal of sympathy, it is the farm community. Faced with falling prices and rising costs, many of them are producing at a cost level which does not even reach the prices they are getting for their produce and it is small wonder that many of them have gone out of business, many are close to that state and the suicide rate in this profession is alarmingly high. A case in point is grain. It is no secret that the grain farmers are heavily subsidized and yet their spokesmen waste no time in telling all and sundry that what they are getting is not nearly enough. Normally I am suspicious of anybody who makes complaints of this nature but not this time. The culprit for this state of affairs is not hard to find; it lies in he farm policy of both the United States and the European Common Market with the latter winning first place hands down. Writer seeks relatives THE EDITOR, I am a great-granddaughter of Mr. Kenneth R. McBain who resided for a period of 20 years from 1840-41 to 1861 in the area of North East Hope and Morris Township in Huron County. His name is mentioned on a plague in the town of Blyth. In 1913, the descendants of his family held a reunion in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba with seven of their 14 children in attendance, 64 children and grandchildren. One of those in attendance was a daughter, Mrs. John B. Taylor of Blyth. In 1993, the family is again planning a reunion. To date, ^here have been 310 descendants located in seven generations. We would like to contact descendants of the Taylor family who may reside in this area. Among the known families are Taylors, accepted — the credit card has become. I can use it to buy gas, alfalfa meal or hockey tickets without raising an eyebrow. I can roll through some major department store in a strange city, outfit myself with a new wardrobe, matching luggage, a whole set of ski equipment, and a denful of books and CD's. I can blow into a five star restaurant, order filet mignon, the best Bordeaux, with a Havana Corona and a snifter of 20-year old brand to wash it down ... And I might not have a subway token to my name. All I have to do when I’m through is wave my magic plastic pellet, figure out the tip and sign my name on the dotted line. Sure, there's a dread reckoning at the end of each month, but it's easy to forget that when you see a tennis rack you lust for or a sweater with your name on it. That's the problem with the credit card -- it's too easy. And I'm sad to report that it’s about to get even easier. The next time you go through the supermarket checkout the clerk may well ask you “Will that be cash, or charge?” Yes, credit cards are coming to the grocery stores. It's already happened at an Associated Supermarket in New York City, where shoppers can now pay for their By Raymond Canon One thing that farmers have, be it in Canada or in the two above mentioned areas, is a great deal of political clout. It has thus come to pass that the farmers in the Common Market have been able to “persuade” their governments to engage in all sorts of price-support programs. European farms are generally much smaller than they are here; at any rate they are certainly less efficient and to protect them' against foreign competition (how often have I heard that complaint), governments have rushed in to throw all sorts of money in their direction. The result is predictable; the word “glut” in European farm circles has taken on a new meaning. If you are going to subsidize farmers, they are going to produce more and in Europe they have with a vengeance. Right now it is costing the governments more money for storage charges for the produce that has not yet been sold than the present value of the produce. The biggest producer of grain products is the United States and, while they have expressed no little amount of anger at the Common Market, they have not been above subsidizing their farmers to a considerably Tennant, Grey or Gray, McKellar, and Ashdown. Besides the Taylors, two of the daughters married and remained in the area. One married a William McConnell, the other F. McDonald. As well as the reunion, we are also developing the family history and major steps have already been made in this direction. I would appreciate it if this letter with a mailing address could be printed in your paper so that any interested descendants could cor-respond to that address. Edna Craig c/o J. G. Craig, 16 Cadden Court King City, Ontario. LOG 1K0 weekly groceries with credit cards. Executives from Visa and MasterCard International can be spotted peeping over the tiered display of canned kidney beans in Aisle Five, taking notes and cheering under their breath. But supermarkets aren't the only new target for credit card companies. They've mounted an offensive in the Soviet Union as well. For the first time in history, Muscovites can know the thrill of carrying plastic, instead of rubles, in their wallets. Kredobank cards, issued in a joint deal with Visa International, will allow carriers to buy goodies at more than 1,000 commercial outlets across the Soviet Union. “In just one day we have received 20 applications” cooed Igor Lipanov, director of Kredobank. “I think there will be significant demand.” Indeed. And think how much more demand there will be once there are actual goods on the shelves of those 1,000 commercial outlets. Then every Kredobank card holder can lumber him or herself with insupportable burdens of personal debt and become free, prosperous and enlightened just like we westerners. greater degree than has been the case in Canada. All this only adds to the glut on the world market and hence the record low prices. I will give the Americans credit for one thing; they have been hammering the Europeans at the current round of talks being carried out under the guidance of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (generally known as GATT) but whether they will be successful or not remains to be seen. I hope so; something has to break the impasse. To add to the problem, as unlikely a country as Saudi Arabia has got into the act. You might think that the Saudis would be the last people to consider growing their own grain and you would be right. However, the government there has got the idea that they should be self-sufficient in grain and as a result they have started to grow it. In order to do this they have to provide irrigation and the like and this does not come cheap. Right now the subsidy paid by the Saudi government is about 10 times the selling price of the grain. It should come as no surprise that they ended up with a surplus and have started to sell it on international markets. With a subsidy such as that, they can undercut the Canadian wheat farmer. My economics students can tell you at the end of the first month of my lectures what a subsidy does to prices and as long as we go on paying such things, rock bottom prices are what you can expect. However, it won't do for one country to remove these subsidies; the main grain producers will have to do it in unison. In the meantime the Canadian federal government, with its $30 billion a year deficit, has no extra cash to throw in anybody’s direction. It is amazing to me where they recently found slightly under a billion dollars to help the grain farmers out; somebody else in the economy is going to have to suffer for that. With a situation such as I have described, is it any wonder that I am watching carefully the current round of negotiations under GATT. I certainly hope they succeed. TheShort of it By Bonnie Gropp Getting it together I am a person who does not like to be swamped. As I find things piling up on me, it takes me ages longer to accomplish doodly-squat. Thus, with Christmas just a few fast-flying weeks away, I pleaded for a day off to gel my bearings and catch up on a few of the seasonal details, like baking something nobody needs and everybody wants. Since beginning work three years ago, it has been my tradition to ask for the same day, one that coincides with a PD Day, so I can really drive myself crazy and do this with my children's help. As my 10-year-old daughter and I stood up to our eyebrows in chocolate, her younger brother stood by with the vacuum cleaner, ready to clean up what the dog didn't. And believe it or not I had an absolutely terrific day! When my husband came home that night I remarked upon what a fulfilling experience the day had been, stating simply that I could really get used to being at home. Of course, ever observant, he was quick to remind me that earlier I had been just as eager to be somewhere else. We are all familiar with those self­ devised quirks that pop up in front of us on a regular and sometimes predictable basis. In the span of a lifetime, we are surprised to find ourselves often ready to test the grass on the other side of the fence, quickly forgetting that it was once greener where we stand now. Though we will profess to be, and quite likely are, happy with our lives, it is the very few who do not desire even for a brief moment, a walk on the other side of the fence. When we are unemployed we want the security and fulfillment we can find in a career. Then when we finally get that all important job we resent the time it takes away from our personal lives. Part of this frustration, however, may come from the fact that by the lime we pay a sitter and put gas in the car, we were actually better off before working. With a growing family under our roof, we think ahead to a time when they will be older and will only be home to visit. Then when we find ourselves rattling around an empty house we long for the days when they were under our roof, forgetting that they were more often under our feet. Actually, when you look at it, the passage through life is a rather ambiguous one. Our first steps begin in the halcyon days of our childhood, where we have little to do but enjoy what the world has to offer us. Our knowledge is limited, thus every day is new. Our expectations are simple, therefore we are easy to please. We are protected and nurtured. Unfortunately, we arc not aware that life can be any different than this carefree existence so do not have a full appreciation of it — until it is gone. Then we arrive at the dramatic stage of life-adolescence-when times appear turbulent and our moods volatile. Living with two teenagers, I've decided that I must make being an adult look pretty good, because they seem to be in a hurry to get there. On the other hand I'd give my Beatles' records for 30 minutes — that would be plenty; I still remember the unpleasant aspects — of that youthful vitality and invincible attitude. The generation of middle-aged baby boomers, who have arrived at the next step in life's joumey-albeit grudgingly- could be said to have the best of both worlds. We're finally old enough to be taken seriously but still young enough to go a little crazy at times. Yes, these are the years when we dance through life, but too often we're boogying to the tunes played by our kids, careers and financial woes. No wonder the ability to laugh at ourselves and at life is so important.