The Brussels Post, 1979-01-24, Page 7Always
read the small
print!
It's your mortgage . . .
much,1/ Of one percent on a 1st or 2nd
4 mortgage u doesn't
t
ove
over the
soundya er s il like
can
e
add up to thousands of dollars. Your dollars.
That's why it'll pay you to talk to us before
you take out a new mortgage. After all, it is
your money and that's no small thing.
VG
VICIDRIA
AND GREY
TRUST
Since 1844
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Sugar and spice
By Bill Smiley
On with the race
It's hard to head into a new year with a
high heart, when every second headline or
smarmy news announcer hits you another
blow where it hurts - right on the financial
bone. It doesn't tingle, like a crack on the
funny bone. Rather it produces a dull, sick
ache that you know isn't going to go away in
a few minutes.
All the staples of life in our once-
wonderful Canadian standard of living are
taking another spurt in the inflation race:
bread, butter, cheese, milk, meat, vege-
tables, fruit. There's a plausible explanation
for every increase, as usual.
But I have a deep, abiding suspicion, and
if I had the research facilities, I'll bet I could
confirm it. I have a strong feeling that when
the basic commodity rises, say, 20 per cent,
the middlemen , the big food chains with
their handy outlets, the supermarkets, add
another five per cent to make it a nice round
25 per cent, fully realizing that the harried
shopper hasn't time or resources to figure
out whether the increase on the shelves is
justified.
One would have to shop with a callculator
in one hand, a copy of the Financial Post in
the other, and a mind like a steel trap to be
able to prove it. But I have a feeling deep in
my bones that it's so. Heard of any big food
or supermarket chains going broke lately,
trying to keep prices down? Any liquor
stores: Any big oil companies: Nope, just
round it off to next figure above the increase,
never below, and let the consumer make up
the difference. After all, it's a free
enterprise system we're living in. And devil
take the hindmost.
This type of swindle is only pennies, when
you look at one item. But it doesn't take
those pennies long to turn into millions of
dollars when the manipulators gather in
their counting houses at the end of a year.
And it's a kick in the solar plexus for the
people on low or limited incomes trying to
keep food on the table. If I were an old-age
pensioner and had nothing else to live on, I'd
be scared stiff to pick up the morning paper
and learn what new item would have to be
banished from the menu.
If I were a young mother with a raft of kids
and a husband out of work, I'd contemplate
eating the kids, starting with the youngest
and most succulent, rather than trying to
feed them.
I'm not an economist, thank the Lord
(what a mess they've made of things). But I
think it makes more sense to subsidize
farmers for growing wheat so that the price
of bread may be kept down, than it does to
subsidize American industrial giants so that
a few thousand jobs will be created.
I know the answers: we need the jobs and
the taxes industry will produce. But the
farmers will still be here, growing wheat,
when huge new factories have closed, the
jobs have vanished, and the Americans are
gone, laughing all the way to the bank. It's
happened before, and will again.
I don't blame the Yanks. If you can find a
sucker willing to give you huge subsidies,
and sweet tax concessions, why not use him?
When the subsidies dry up, and the tax
concessions period ends, you can always go
home, taking your marbles with you. No skin
off yours.
Don't think I like subsidies of any kind. I
hate them. Nobody ever subsidized my
father. And when he went broke in the
depression, he and my mother had to
scramble to keep us off the relief roles. But
they did.
That of course, was in the days when
individual enterprise was possible, before
everything got so big and faceless and
unwieldy, when a person was still a human
being, not just a number buried in the
bowels of that vast conglomerate that is
government today.
No, I don't like subsidies, but I do believe
in fair shares, or as near as we can get in our
system. And that brings me from food
fiddling to taxes.
Every year I read the early January
reports of changes in the tax structure. And
every year I almost weep. It's the rich wot
get the gravy, it's the poor wot gets the
blame, as the old song goes. This year, as
usual, the poor get a few minor concessions,
but with inflation, wind up shorter than ever.
The rich get the same concessions, but with
their money invested at fat interest rates,
come out ahead of the game. The poor don't
have investments. They have to operate in
the market place.
It's all very complicated and I won't go
into it here. But putting it roughly, I reckon
that if you were a totally disabled veteran
with 12 kids and a working wife, you might,
just might, have the same income, as the
pension of a politician who served two terms,
was soundly thumped the last time around,
and had returned to his fat law practice.
•
Without knowing/ it,
you could be a
turn-off.
Do you always take a bath, instead of a shower
which uses less power?
Do you fill a kettle full to make a single cup?
Turn on the washing machine for just a few things?
Leave the TV on when no one's watching?
And do you often forget to turn off
though everyone's home in bed?
Any of these thoughtless little habits can make you
a turn-off. Because waste of electricity, like anything
that everybody really needs, can turn people off.
Wouldn't you rather turn off a light bulb than turn
off a friend? Think about how you use electricity
Wasting electricity turns people off.
4
I IY8-3344
the porch light even
This message is brought to you by your tiyciro on behalf of people who care
first week of performances, Nicholas Pennell in the title
June 4 to June 9. role) will open the afternoon
There will be three of Wednesday, June 6, The
Festival stage productions: Importance of EldingEarnest
Love's Labour's Lost on the afternoon of Thursday,
Tuesday, June 5, The First June 7, Richard II (with
Part of Henry IV on Frank Maraden in the title
Wednesday, June 6 and The role) the afternoon of Friday,
Second Part of Henry IV on June 8, Happy New Year the
Thursday, June 7. On the afternoon of Saturday, June
Avon Stage: Ned and Jack 9 and Richard II (with
will open in an afternoon Stephen Russell in the title
performance on Tuesday, role) the evening of
June 5, Richard H (with Saturday, June 9.
YOUNG'S
Variety
Party Needs . Cosmetics
Tobacco Groceries • Stationery
Weekdays 9-9, Holidays & Sundays 12 - 6.
Brussels 887-6224
N.
THE BRUSSELS POST,JANUARY 24, 1979 — 7
Festival to celebrate
year of the child
OMAF will
keep date
registry
Acting on the suggestions
and recommendations of our
clientele, the Ontario
Ministry of Agriculture and
Food Office, Clinton, is
pleased to provide all Huron
County agriculturally
oriented organizations and
agribusinesses with the
opportunity to register dates
for various meetings, field
days and other special
events.
It is anticipated that this
service should be of as-
sistance in planning and
co-ordination of the staging
of various agricultural
activities for the information
of all concerned. Further, it
should be possible to
minimize conflict of meeting
dates.
A calendar listing the date,
time and place of meetings
will be posted and
maintained in the window of
the foyer of the Agricultural
Office, Clinton.
Arrangements to make use
of this Service may be
obtained by phoning the
Agricultural Office, at
Clinton, 482-3428 or Zenith
7 2800 between 8:30 and 4:30
p.m. - Monday to Friday.
Stratford, Ontario,
January 19, 1979. . .The
Opening Night of the 1979
Stratford Festival will be a
Gala Performance
celebrating the international
Year of the Child and com-
bining the talents of artists of
Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens, under the
direction of Brian
MacDonald, members of the
Festival Acting Company,
and friends, in a program
based on the writings of
Shakespeare. There will be
)ne performance only, on
Monday, June 4, at the
Festival Theatre. This marks
the second year the Festival
has devoted Opening Night
to a single performance Gala
presentation drawn from
Shakespeare's works.
In all, the Festival will
open nine productions inIthe