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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-04-03, Page 24wommo Avoiding s. trouble1111111111.1.11 By Bill Smiley Some people, like me believe in rolling with th punches, rather, than stick ing out our chins to show ho many we can absorb. I hav found that, in general, if avoid trouble, trouble avoid me. Iff I know that some pain i the arm has been trying t get me on the phone, I als know immediately that he o she wants me to d something that i don't wan to do. Therefore, I take th ;phone off the hook and leav it off until the pain has foun some other sucker. Another invention of min to stay out of trouble i patented as Nega-Prod. Thi is short for Negative Produc tion. The theory is simple The more you produce, th more problems you have whether it is children, manu factured goods or farm pro ducts. The more children you have, the more emotiona and economic problems you create for yourself. The more goods you produce, the more you have to hustle to find customers and mee payrolls. The more farm stuff you raise, whether it's beef or beans, the greater your chance of being caught in a glut on the market. Our great national rail ways caught on to this years ago. When they had lots of passengers, they had lots of problems. People wanted comfort, cleanliness, decent meals and some assurance that they would get where they were going on time. There was much more money to be made, and fewer problems, by trans- porting wheat and lumber and cattle. So the railways began treating people like cattle. Passenger trains `became uncomfortable and dirty. Quality of the food dropped like a stone. And they never arrived on time. Presto. End of problems. No more passengers.,So the railways were able to cut off non-paying passenger lines, get rid of all those superflu- ous things like station agents and telegraphers and train conductors, and concentrate on ,taking from one point to another things that paid their way and didn't talk back; newsprint,` coal, oil, wheat. Perhaps this is the answer for our provincial' govern- ments, which, are quickly and quietly building massive mountains of debt for future taxpayers. • Perhaps they should just! stop building highways, and repairing those already in existence. We'd all be sore ag hell for awhile, but as the roads got worse and "worse, most of us would stop driving our cars. The government would save millions of dol- lars now spent on highways, and they could fire two- thirds of the highway cops. I don't qujte see how the governments •could. use Nega-Prod to get out of the liquor business, which cer- tainly produces plenty of problems. The booze trade is so profitable that asking government to abandon it would be like asking a mil- • lionaire to forsake his country estate for a run- down farm. Perhaps if they had a Free Booze Day, once a week, every week, say on a Satur- day, it would solve a number of problems. It would cer- tainly reduce the surplus population. This, in turn, would cut down, drastically, the unemployment figures. Should the provincial gov- ernments find that Nega- Prod , is all I've suggested, some of it might spill over into' the federal government, usually the last to catch on to what the country needs. Instead of the manna and honey flowing from Ottawa in the form of baby bonuses and' pensions, we might get some terse manifestoes: t'People who have more than one and a half children will be sent to jail for four years. Note: separate jails." "Persons who plan to live past 65 and claim a pension will be subject to an open season each year, from October 1 to Thanksgiving Day. Shotguns and bicycle chains only." "All veterans off all wars may claim .participation by reason of insanity, and may apply to Ottawa for iep- mediate euthenisation." These might seem slightly Draconian measures, but they sure would put an end to a lot of our problems and troubles. Think"of what they would do for such sinful ac- tivities as sex, growing old, and hanging around the Le- gion Hall, playing checkers. But we trust also think of the economic benefits. With a plug put into that river of paper money flowing from Ottawa, taxes would drop, inflation would vanish and undoubtedly, separatism would wither on the vine. People would be lined up six deep at the U.S. border, trying to get across, and that would solve, in one swell, foop, our unemployment dif- ficulties. We could go back to being hewers of water ancjecarriers of wood, which was our manifest destiny before the politicians' got into the act. Fishermen or lumberjacks, in short, which most of the rest of the world thinks we are anyway. Nega-Prod may seem a bit lofty and abstract, at first glance, butitworks. I know. from personal experience. Every. time I try to make something, or fix something, 'it costs me a lot of money, and I get into a lot of trouble. ,So, I have a policy of never trying to fix something or make something. It's a lot less trouble to put up signs: "Beware of falling bricks; Npt responsible for slivers from picnic table." And so on. ��BOOR REVIEW ,A HISTORY OF THE VIKINGS. Revised Edition. By Gwyn Jones. Oxford Uni- versity Press, Toronto. 528 pp. Paper $12.50. Reviewed by PERCY MADDUX Gwyn Jones's "A History of the Vikings" originally appeared in 1968. It has been brought up to 1984 through the benefit of new findings. ,In any event, it is a scholarly work which goes into detail about the ancient Scandi- navian people. That far back brings us face to face with legends, myths, and uncer- tainties. The Jones book is very technical in the early chapters. It becomes more readable starting with page 182, which is theStart of the Viking movement overseas. The rest of the book iS' devoted to Viking relations with' other countries and is full of historical data. While this can be read as a nar- rative',.it really demands and deserves earnest study. It is a book for a seriouts student. TAX TIP OF THE WEEK A PUBLIC SERVICE OF HMI BLOCK Q. My .father's employer gave me a scholarship of $1,200 last year. Dues my fa- ther report the whole amount on his income tax return? - • A. If the scholarship came as a result of a selection by an independent hodv or hoard, and not simply as a result of your father's em- ployment, it is income to you and not to your father. The first $500 is not taxable. Ron H. WILLIAMS DRAINAGE Inc. • FREE Estimate • FREE Map of Competed Drainage System • We Install • Clay • Cement • Plastic • Farm & Municipal Drainage WE GUARANTEE ALL OUR WORK, RR 1 , Listowel, Ontario CaII 291-3587 Anytime HOUSING INDUSTRY PROBLEMS In the post-war era, there has been a strong correlation between interest rates and the housing industry. When business was strong, interest rates would rise and housing would be one of the first Sectors to feel a slump. Then interest rates would fall and, after they had declined for a period, the housing industry would begin to. recover. • It is noteworthy now that this industry no longer responds to changes in credit rates. Nowadays, several in- dustries provide credit to the 0 Canada's Business by Bruce Whitestone housing industry in periods of credit shortages. The savings and loan industry in the United States has pro- vided credit in such inter- vals, and the trust com- panies in Canada have developed innovative ways to minimize the impact of high interest rates. For in- stance, reverse mortgages for elderly people mean that lenders provide the monthly mortgage payments to home owners, and upon termina- tion of occupancy, property ownership is transferred to the lender. At the present time, •the primary demand for housing is determined by the ability of the average household to buy the standard home. Now many homes in Canada are priced out of the reach of the ordinavxy prospective buyer. The number of hours of factory work required to buy a house in Canada on average has risen by 90 per cent since 1962. Moreover, the typical lender is gradually running short of funds available for mortgages. There is a rela- tive scarcity of funds whi`h can be loaned at rates which appeal to trust companies or other lenders for the longer term. Lending institutions have loaned mortgage money on the thinnest of margins in the past decade because of the belief that rising realty values would cover any shortage. Now, with housing prices at best flat and ac- tually declining in various areas such as the West, the willingness of lenders to extend themselves is diminishing. The demand for housing, therefore, is based on the ability of buyers to afford to make a purchase, and with real personal disposable income in North America stagnant, that important component of housing demand does not exist. In the United States, real average earnings of workers is one percent below the previous year's level, and in Canada the situation is even less favorable, Moreover, len- ders have become wary of lending money based on col- lateral that is not sufficient to cover adverse con- tingencies. The props for the housing industry are being eroded in North, America. Those who have bought because there was not much risk of a de - dine in price will be in for a rude awakening over the next few years. TAX TIP F THE WEEK A , C SERVICE OF H&R BLOCK Q. Last year I received un- employment benefits in the' amount of $1,000. This year was informed that I was overpaid $300 and am re- quired to return this amount. Since I paid taxes on the $300 last year, may 1 deduct the $300 on my re- turn for this, year'? A. Yes, you may. The ga:n- ada Employment and Immi- gration Commission will give you a receipt marked "Good for Income Tax Pur- poses." 'rhe amount shown on this receipt may be de- ducted from income on the line "Other deductions" in the year repaid. The receipt must ,be filed with your re- turn. "A GREAT PLACE TO TAKE A LEAK" QUALITY RADIATOR SERVICE • CLEANING ' RECORING • REPAIRING "HIGH PRESSURE REVERSE FLUSHING • AUTOMOTIVE • TRUCK • INDUSTRIAL & FARM SERVICE 31 Arthur St. E Harriston, Ont. . 338-2636 A� wn� — THIS IS IT ! ! ! 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