The Great Rip-off
What To Do About ItResponding to "The Great Rip-off: WhatAre You Going to Do About It?" in theNovember issue, six readers sent in theseideas for combatting inflation. But according to Richard Bower, Professor ofBusiness Economics at Tuck School, inflation already is passe. It's recession weshould be worrying about. And then inflation? And then recession? Oh my!
Congratulations to your Undergraduate Editor, Victor Zonana, as well as to Robert Weinig for "The Great Rip-off."
I would like to comment on several points made by Mr. Weinig. He bespeaks "annual balanced budgets." But how? I suggest a built-in enforcement device. A bill should be passed, to wit: for every fiscal year in which the President and the Congress fail to balance the budget, the President would take a $15,000 cut in salary and each congressman a $5,000 cut. Impossible to pass such a bill? Just start off in close fought Congressional contests and watch the idea snowball.
Mr. Weinig speaks of "inefficiency in government." We have over two million civil service employees who are rated annually (and meaninglessly) on the factors of quantity of work, quality of work, and adaptability. Yes, you can infer "economy with government funds and property" in the standard three, but why not come right out and demand economy to thwart the wastrels and the empire builders on the federal payroll. (I am not impugning the large majority of federal workers.)
A final point. Both Gallup and Harris have found that about 50 per cent of all voters do not know the names of their elected lawmakers in state and nation. How do you go about writing a congressman or state legislator whose name (and district number) you don't know?
The Voters' Information Act provides that in each postal facility in the land (40,000 or so) each postmaster will post information on how to register, how to vote, who the lawmakers are for the area each post office is located in. Also, all about Western Union mailgrams to Washington through which you can "cast four votes" on hot issues that bother you, to the President, your two senators, and your representative. (The Post Office Department doesn't like this bill, and so this becomes automatically the position of the Administration.)
Here in America, we fatuously think we excel at communications. Where it counts the most, to achieve the "rule of the people," we are terrible.
ROBERT P. CORT '26
Clinton, Conn.
Eliminate interest payments as tax deductible items.
Take the power to print money out of government hands; go back to gold standard.
Break up the huge corporations that no longer operate in competitive markets: IBM, AT&T, etc.
Eliminate one-way escalation of wages (we should see reduced wages during recession, not unemployment).
Oil: Develop anti-trust techniques on world scale. Add state gas taxes of 50c/gallon, or allow U.S. prices to float to international level (Decontrol oil prices.)
What am I doing? Cut in salary. Consequent cut in spending; buy stock. Going into debt as much as possible. Throw up if I ever really see a WIN button.
JAY S. WAKEFIELD '65
Seattle, Wash.
To stop inflation — just you wait! French inflation, where a worker toiled all day to get a loaf of bread, brought Napoleon Bonaparte. He ended it with the Napoleonic wars. German inflation created Adolph Hitler and it was lost from sight in World War II.
The only way to stop inflation other than that is, as Ben Franklin said, to spend or appropriate less than your income — your own, federal, state, and local government.
We all must do so, or tomorrow's dictator will.
STANLEY P. LOVELL '12
Newtonville, Mass.
Congress voted itself a $7,000 or $9,000 raise in "expense money" on October 18. I wrote a letter about it to the Miami Herald which was not published. I also wrote to my congressman. So if they did give themselves a raise, it would be hard to learn about it.
I suggest the [$328-million] budget of both the Senate and the House should be open to the press and the public who seek this knowledge.
The way the budget of both bodies is conducted suggests a rip-off.
MARGARET M. JOHNSON ('20)
West Palm Beach, Fla.
In answer to your invitation in the November issue, I would like to submit the following observations on ways of combatting inflation. These ways consist mainly of setting back fires to remove some of the fuel on which the inflation feeds. This fuel is supplied by cartels, by shortages, and by lack of faith in paper money, among other troubles.
At the present time, of course, the most conspicuous cartel is that of the oil exporting nations. In fighting fire with fire, it is suggested that the Congress impose a 50 per cent ad valorem tariff on all petroleum products imported into the United States, to be accompanied by laws and regulations restricting the use of petroleum products to the most essential purposes. Many trips are unessential, particularly those involving private airplanes, heavy automobiles, snowmobiles, and private cars on routes where good mass transportation facilities are available. We waste energy in many other ways also. It is quite possible to reduce our use of oil to the point where foreign oil is no longer needed. Then the price of petroleum products for internal consumption will be under our complete control, and should be kept under present prices.
Food shortages, and resulting high prices all over the world, are due both to population increases and to lack of fertilizer, equipment, and know-how in agriculture outside of the United States and Canada. It is suggested that the Congress set up a program of exporting fertilizer, equipment, and know-how to countries which will cooperate in the program, buying the material and services offered at reasonably low prices, with payments extended over a period of years. It should also be stipulated that cooperating countries should make some sort of a start in family planning, if they have not done so already.
As to lack of faith in paper money, that can only be corrected by providing a backing for the money, using a combination of commodities of which we have a good supply- Only foreign governments need be given the privilege of converting dollars into these commodities, or of obtaining dollars on presentation of the commodities, wherever it seems desirable to correct adverse balances of payment. Most people would accept this situation as assurance that the dollar bills they hold are worth something more than what somebody in Washington says they should be worth as printed paper alone. Commodities which we now have, or can in a few years obtain, in good supply include gold, cotton, wheat, and coal.
DANIEL PINGREE '24
Andover, Mass.
With all the gloom of inflation, the energy crisis, wars and rumors of wars surrounding us, I would like to share my happiness and good news with your retired and about-to-be-retired readers.
For instance, how would you like to retire in a place with no pollution; no tax on retirement income, capital gains or dividends; no teenage subculture (elders still rule the roost); no major crime; and one of the world's highest literacy rates? Well, you can ... in Costa Rica!
Would you like a really stable government? In 1948, Costa Rica disbanded its army and put the money saved into their very fine medical and educational institutions. And, to top that off. it has Hawaii's beauty and climate, while the cost of living is so low you can easily afford to eat steak every day!
Before long, we'll drive down to our few acres in Guanacaste Province, near Liberia city. We will build our home for about $10 a square foot (check your local builders to see what it costs in your area). We will fish in one of the fresh-water streams near us, go hiking or camping, ride horseback, play a little golf or tennis, or just do nothing. If we feel like it, we will take a short drive down to the Pacific to fish, lie on the beach, or go sailing.
For two very special reasons, our lives have taken on a whole new dimension, a whole new reason for existing. Like our courageous first lady, Betty Ford, I have had successful surgery for breast cancer. And now, with our discovery of Costa Rica, for the first time since my husband retired from the U.S. Navy 14 years ago, we are going to be able to live - really live - on our retirement pay!
We are very excited about this. So much so, in fact, that if any readers would like more information about this beautiful, amazing little country and its retirement law, they can write me. I will be happy to share what I know with them.
JUANITA N. BIRD
Hixson, Tenn.
