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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1992-07-22, Page 4Safety first can save lives While many people like to gamble at the weekly bingo or by buying lottery tickets, few people would knowingly gamble with their lives...and yet every day in Huron county, hundreds of farmers take chances that could end their lives, or change them forever. Next week, Farm Safety Week, farm safety officials hope farmers will stop and think about the everyday practices that endanger their health and lives. The problem for farmers is that they get so used to taking chances, they don't realize how dangerous many of their practices are. In any given time a farmer leaves a PTO running without a cover, or tries a short cut of unclogging a machine without shutting it off, the chances are there will be no terrible consequences. It's like a person standing in the middle of a golf course in a thunder storm: he can probably do it hundreds of times without anything happening...but the 101st time he could be dead. So it is with farmers. Victims of terrible accidents who testify at events like the recent Huron County Farm and Home Safety media day, invariably say they were in a hurry and just didn't think anything bad could happen to them. In an instant, they learned they were wrong this time but it was too late now. Lives are lost. Limbs are mangled. There's a high cost in pain, in time lost, in a changed life. Like car drivers who take chances by speeding or passing when it isn't as safe as they think, farmer s need to weigh the risk of saving those few minutes in the way they’d way they’d weigh the risk of investing in a new piece of machinery...more so, because the downside of the investment is a lot worse. Is the few seconds, even minutes, saved really worth what might be lost? Hardly. The thing the matters most is your safety. The time you save won't matter much if you lose months in hospital...or worse still, your life.—KR But what about people? Economist Kip Beckman of the Conference Board of Canada, writing in the Kitchener Waterloo Record on the weekend, struck out at politicians who are worried about job creation. In worrying about creating jobs for the jobless they are only prolonging the necessary economic changes to get the economy going again, he argued. He didn't say anything about what victims of the current troubles are supposed to do while government stands back and lets economic nature take its course. Governments, Beckman said, should really be more concerned with job destruction rather than job creation. Technological change brings job destruction with people who worked in outdated industries becoming unemployed, but new jobs being created to bring even greater long term creativity. He has a point. If people making buggies hadn’t lost their jobs, we wouldn't have the comfortable travel of automobiles these days, let along airplanes. Yet the economic theorist seems to miss the point that what we’re really doing this for is people, not some pure economic thinking. We elect governments to try to smooth out the terrible costs of times of economic transition for people. We have created unemployment insurance and welfare to keep money in the hands of victims of economic troubles. There's an argument to be made that if we hadn't had such assistance the current recession would have been far worse. But economists and business leaders can only see the government costs involved. They decry government deficits and call for changes to the welfare state. They want to return to a system not unlike what happened in the 1930’s when there was no social assistance and the Depression was far more serious because so many people didn't have any money to spend at all, and prices fell even further as a result. We cannot freeze the world and forbid change. Beckman illustrates the problems of the former Soviet states where the government created many jobs, but because they were more worried about jobs than efficiency, the whole country suffered. Yet his call for Canadian and U.S. governments not to be tempted, as they approach elections, not to either prop up failing industries or to create short term jobs to help get people through the tough times, is not only heartless, it’s stupid. Economists say we've moved into a post industrial society, where the jobs come in the service industry, not in manufacturing. But to have a service industry to prosper, you must have someone to serve. If a huge portion of the population is broke, there can't be much service industry. We all gain a lot by helping those hurt by recession.—KR Photo by Bonnie Gropp Looking Back Through the Years ONE YEAR AGO July 24,1991 Five area students from F. E. Madill Secondary School were named Ontario Scholars. Ben Barnes of RR 5, Brussels, Patricia Cowman of RR 2, Bluevale, Janice Heise of RR 2, Bluevale, Melinda Hussey of RR 1, Belgrave, and Susan McMillan of Brussels all achieved at least 80 percent in six Ontario Academic Credits. Lori Armstrong of RR 2, Auburn was among the Ontario Scholars at Goderich District Collegiate Insti­ tute. THREE YEARS AGO July 19,1989 The Blyth Inn Slo-Pitch team captured the 'A' Championship at the Belgrave Kinsmen Tournament Four students from F. E. Madill Secondary School were recom­ mended for Ontario Scholarships. .Proud recipients were Marla Hussey of RR 1, Belgrave, Shan­ non Rice of Brussels, Ken Jamieson of RR 5, Brussels, and Gary Martin of RR 3, Brussels. FIVE YEARS AGO July 22,1987 A one and one half year old Ethel child was attacked in the back gar­ den of the family home by a rabid skunk. Clinton Mooney received a number of scratch and bite marks before Mrs. Mooney ran into the yard, grabbed the skunk and threw it over a fence. The skunk was later shot and killed by Doug Evans, owner of the hamlet's hardware store. CitizenTheNorthHuron P.O. Box 429,P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont.BRUSSELS, Ont Publisher, Keith Roulston N0M1H0 NOG 1 HO Editor, Bonnie Gropp Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 Sales Representatives, FAX 523-9140 FAX 887-9021 Jeannette McNeil and Merle Gunby The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $20.50/year ($19.16 plus $1.34 G.S.T.) for local; $31.03/year ($29.00 plus $2.03 G.S.T.) for local letter carrier in Goderich, Hanover, Ustowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $60.00/year for U.S.A, and Foreign. Advertising is accepted on the condition that In the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. • Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. 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