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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1986-04-02, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, April 2, 1986 • Ames dvoca • Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. \ Phone 519435-1331 •CNA a4^ e Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1$73 Published by LW. Eedy Publications Limited • LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN Editor ROSS HAUGH Assistant Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager DICK JONGKIND Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' Other shoe falls It's becoming rather obvious that the majority of members of Huron County council have lost touch with reality. That's the only explanation that is plausible for their most recent decision to increase spending by 9.4 percent for the current year. That decision is made more unpalatable for taxpayers in the knowledge that some of that increase is due to the exorbitant salary increases ap- proved earlier for county department heads. The 18 members who voted for the huge spending increase fail to recognize that it is totally inconsistent with the cur- rent state of the county's predominantly agricultural based economy. Property taxes are part of the input costs that farmers must face and there are many in Huron who clearly can not afford such increases in those costs under current market conditions. Oddly enough, 12 of those voting for the 1986 budget were township represen- tatives who should have been expected to have more insight into agricultural woes than they displayed. Proponents of the budget also fail to comprehend that the battle against infla- tion has not yet been won, and a budget that runs almost double that of the infla- tion rate borders on the unconscionable. In defending the budget, Hullett Reeve Tom Cunningham notes that the county rate between 1973 and 1985 has been increased far below the correspon- ding levels of most municipalities and the county board of education. That's a hollow argument. Current budgets should reflect current conditions. The 1986 Huron County budget fails total- ly to meet that requirement. While many Huron municipal coun- cils have voiced their concern and criticism over the step taken by county council regarding the pay increases for department heads, they have now seen the other shoe fall as well. Need give and take In spring, a young man's (or woman's) fancy is expected to turn to thoughts other than ice time at the local arena, but the latter is blossoming into a major debate in Exeter. It's encouraging, of course, to know that the local facility is enjoying renew- ed popularity,but that has brought some conflicts between some of the users for the most favorable hours, and at the lowest charge possible. Ironically, the ice surface sits idle for a major portion of each day and the bat- tle is primarily over the hours between 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. on week days and the addition of afternoon times on weekends. Obviously, the solution requires some give and take from all user groups, plus the realization that some require special status, either through travel con- siderations or age levels. Adults have to acknowledge that late night times are un- suitable for .youngsters, while those in- volved with the latter must appreciate that adult groups must be given some prime weekend times for tournaments and special event.in which out-of-town competitors may be involved. While most users have traditionally been given specific times that carry through their season, part of the solution to the present predicament may involve less rigid apportionments so all can share in the good times as well as the poor ones.. That obviously requires some added organizational and paper work, but sure- ly that's a small price to pay to facilitate an equitable and fair distribution of the prime hours over the season. If people are as keen as they appear to be to get on the ice, they should have no trouble mastering periodic changes in their schedules. Say it more often I was at a dinner party a few weeks ago where a lot of fuss was made over the last piece of a delicious meat pie. Nobody wanted to have it. At least, nobody admitted wanting it, myself included. The pie was very tasty. Everyone had eaten a generous serving; some had eaten two. But the host just couldn't persuade anyone to take that last piece. A common occur- rence. We're all too well behav- ed to do such a crude thing as ac- cepting the last piece of pie. And of course we wouldn't fight over the largest serving or the choicest morsel or the fullest glass of wine. All of us have witnessed the Dance of the Doro which goes something like this: A and 13 ar- rive at a door roughly at the same time. A holds the door open for B, but 13 refuses to go through. B signals for A to go ahead: "After you, Sir" for Madam, since this is a game all sexes can play). But A doesn't go ahead because, after all, it was A who had opened the door for 13 in the first place. So why should A now give in? They wave their arms, they mumble unintelligible phrases, they per- form some fancy footwork until one of them finally breaks down and walks through the door, mut- tering profound words of thanks to the other. We're all such ladies and gentlemen, aren't we? We are when the stakes are low. We ex- cel in good manners when all we've got to lose is a few seconds of our time or a mouthful of food. Yielding the right-of-way to an elderly pedestrian at an intersec- tion is another chivalrous thing to do. It makes us feel so good. And it doesn't cost anything. Imagine yourself in the theatre. The curtain has just gone down on Act 1. Close your eyes for a minute in lieu of an intermis- sion. Ready for Act II? Ready or not, here it comes. Same The Peter Hessel Column characters, change of scene. Now we're talking money. The same polite friends who in Act I would have rather died than appear boorish are now prepared to cut each other's throat. You and me and all the other ladies and gentlemen suddenly remember who we are. Not in- dividuals any longer. Not a chance. We are members of groups. Some of us are profes- sionals, some blue-collar workers (1 am disregarding the blue- collar professionals for the mo- ment). Some are employees, some are in business. Some belong to unions, others to management. The same people who unanimously refused to be selfish at the dinner table are now divid- ed into investors and borrowers, arguing whether the interest rates should go up or down. Easterners are pitted against Westerners, and both forget the Northerners. Medical doctors are opposed by medical consumers. We no longer smile or act char- ming. We dig in our heels and grit our teeth. Instead of saying "No, I couldn't possibly.... Go ahead, please, I can wait... No trouble at all.... Don't mention it... After you, Sir," we snarl "Why should my income group be singled out? Why doesn't the government tax big business or foreign com- panies or smokers or boozers or teachers or churches or anything and anybody except newspaper columnist?" And we run to our tax consultant and urge them to find loopholes so that we are able to keep a bigger piece of pie than our neighbors. Some of us propose in all seriousness that only parents of school -aged children should pay school taxes, that only drivers should pay for highway construc- tion, that it isn't fair when people who hate modern art have to give up their hard-earned money to finance a collection of abstract paintings. And so on. Does this kind of thinking lead us to the user -pay philosophy? You bet. And it in turn (right turn) leads us back where we came from - the cave, the jungle. I admit to being simplistic when it comes to economics. I never got past 101 in the subject. But would things be better if we tried to behave in the labor market, in the business world, in politics the way we behave at the dinner table or in the ridiculous door situation? Couldn't we say "After you, Sir" more often? Wilson wanted to know what the dollar would do next and it blew a fuse- Automatically use. Automatically lose jobs 'In a move that one industry analyst says will put Canada ahead of Japan in automaking technology, General Motors of Canada Ltd. last week announc- ed a $2 billion expenditure to turn its Oshawa plants into high-tech centres featuring robots and do- ing away with the traditional assembly line. While that's basically g news for both the Canadian a Ontario economy, there are some negative aspects to the situation, not the least of which is the fact that one of the company's out- dated plants in Quebec could face possible closure, putting its 4,000 employees on the unemployment lines. In the short run, or course, the new equipment being ordered to fill the revamped Oshawa plants will create several hundred new jobs, although the use of robots and other high-tech production will probably not add signficant- ly to the number of employees re- quired at Oshawa. During my visit to several John Deere plants in Iowa and Illinois recently, I had an opportunity to see some robots in action, along with other highly automated pro- duction systems. There's no disputing the advan- tages of robots over humans The former never show up for work with a hangover, aren't affected by the aftermath of a marital squabble, worry over paying for the kids' braces or the many other foibles that take their toll on human production workers. They can also perform some obviously dirty or mundane tasks without any concern for the safe- ty precautions or challenges that would be needed if men or women were performing the same jobs. Two robots with which our tour members were obviously fascinated were painting trac- An Extra -billing by doctors being a current issue in Ontario I thought 1 would pass on to you a few doctor jokes (appropriate since some of them are rather sick) : For example, the difference between an itch and an allergy is about $35.00. Some doctors tell their patients the worst -- others just mail the hill. Hospital patient receiving bill for an operation: "No wonder they wore masks in the operating room." •The lastest thing in shock treat- ment is a psychiatrist who sends his hill in advance. Psychiatrist: "Congratula- tions. You're cured." Patient: Some cure. Before I came to you, I was Napoleon. tors, while in another section of the same factory, a robot was busy doing some spot welding. There were many other areas. on the assembly line where machines were automatically performing functions without any significant human involvement. One person may have been in- volved in setting up and oversee- Batt'n Around .with The Editor ing the activities of as many as a half dozen of the machines. i t * ! * While robots and automated assembly production machines have obvious advantages over humans,society can not escape the reality that they also have some decided disadvantages. In the case of the John Deere plants and those of their com- petitors, the robots and automatic machines do not re- quire the food products that the implements being turned out will help produce. Neither can they drive the cars which will come off the assembly lines at Oshawa. The major question then arises as to how the displaced workers on those production lines will be able to afford the products that are being turned out by their replacements. As noted, some of those jobs are replaced by the opportunities which are created for the manufacturers of the robots and ' automatic equipment, but it is evident that there is still a short- fall in the total number of jobs available through high tech. It must also be emphasized that the creativity of the available jobs is also dramatical- ly increased. Obviously, there must be a great deal more in- terest and challenge in designing a robot than in performing most of the jobs those robots will -- The fit retnains, .how 'anti that robots displace people and many of those people no longer have incomes available to them. * In many ways it is the prover- bial catch 22 situation. Manufac- turers who fail to meet the challenges of the technological advancements can not compete with those who do, both at home and abroad, so their employees are jeopardized to the same ex- tent as those being replaced by robots. The challenge for society in general, therefore, is to come to grips with the technological age and all its ramifications. While firms such as Deere & Company move to assist their current employees with early retirement schemes, that solves only an im- mediate problem of displacement and not the long-term problem associated with the fact those jobs are not being refilled. While unemployment in- surance and welfare programs meet some of the needs of displaced workers, they in no way fill the need of people to have some purpose in life and to make a positive contribution. The challenge has certainly not been met as yet and there is no immediate indication that it will. Perhaps we'll have to wait un- til some robot has the ability to come up with a plausible solution? elitist system Now I'm just another nobody." A man was choking on a chicken bone. A friend called for a doctor who removed it. "What By the i11 Way by Fletcher do I owe you?" asked the man. "About half of what you were ready to pay when the bone was still in your throat," replied the doctor. To be fair, most of this genera- tion doesn't really see the humour of the above jokes. Since OHIP came in, the times that a person is called on to actually pay for medical services is few and far between. We go into a hospital, slap down our little card and that's all there is to it. My understanding is that we have one of the best medical systems in the world with people coming here from many other countries for treatment. If the doctors do not feel that their fees are high enough then they should negotiate with the government for an increase in them rather than tacking an ex- tra fee on top of the standard charge. Otherwise the system becomes an elitist one where on- ly the wealthy can afford the hest treatment. 4