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Show National Enterprise , June 2 , 1976 Page Eleven Watch (out) for Humphrey Specifically, watch out for the Humphrey-Hawkin- s Full Employment Bill. To achieve its goal of reducing unemployment to 3 percent by 1980, the bill would require central economic planning at the federal level and would use the federal government as the employer of last resort. In defense of the 40 billion dollars a year cost of the program, Sen. Humphrey states that the increase in national productivity will far exceed the price. We are not particularly surprised by Senator Humphreys quaint belief that government employees contribute to national productivity. What is amazing is that while virtually every candidate is running against Big Government, Senator Humphrey comes out for the New Deal. Humphreys stand should give food for thought to those who believe that the candidates' anti-Bi- g Government campaigns reflect the public mood. Because while Senator Humphrey is an awful economist he is also a skillful political pro whose antennae are finely tuned in on the public pulse in general and his constituency in particular. So w'atch out. The New Deal may be just around the corner. four-squa- - re . Social Security Dropouts We most certainly do contribute to national productivity. hard work.'1 Government wiretapping is The only groups of workers (other than the Amish) allowed by law to opt out of the Social Security system are state and local government What began as a trickle of employees. in 1959 seems about to become a opting-ou- t torrent. Any public agency wishing to withdraw its employees from SS must give two years notice; as of early this year there were 207 withdrawals pending, in addition to the 322 cities, states, and counties that have already quit. The leading proposed dropout is, of course, New York City. Its reason, like that of the others, is economic. Columbia University Prof. Raymond Horton estimates that the city can provide the same retirement benefits via private insurance for $183 million per year less money. Perhaps now that public employees are making it fashionable to opt out of Social Security, someone will seriously question why the rest of us are denied the same privilege. turned 35 last Saturday. It wasnt the biggest thing in my everyone who was at Normandy in 1944 gets together every 10 life but I must admit that it didnt pass without notice. years. By now, it doesnt even matter what side you were on. I For the first time the insurance tables say that I have about as far to go as I have been. The most tangible loss was my junior membership to the local country club. More importantly is that feeling that a good deal of my future is behind me. Dont get me wrong. I know that there will be worse birthdays. At least I hope there will be. Fourty isnt easy, Im told. Fifty is even worse. By the time you get to sixty, there isnt a damn thing funny about it. Someone once said that you only go around once in this world and if you do :t right thats all you need. So how are we supposed to do it right? Years ago I asked my grandmother what the secret of life was. I know that sounds a bit formal, but thats just about the way I put it. She was in her 80s at the time. I was in my early 20s. Ill never forget what she said: But You cant decide to have a happy life, she told me. life if And is life. your you can decide to have an interesting interesting, you have an ever so much greater chance of having a happy life. Pretty good advice! It just might be more difficult to follow it The important thing was the participation in a great event. Its the great events that give life zest. Im told that any man over 50 remembers clearly where he was four times in his life: 1. The day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. 2. The day Roosevelt died. 3. The day Truman was reelected and 4. The day Kennedy was shot. Great events. There were others and there will be more. But its what makes life worth living. My father had to work hard to get into World War II. He was in his 30s with a couple of children. No question, he was and still is very patriotic. But that was just part of the reason he got in the war. It was, he has told me, gqing to be the single most significant world event of my life. How could I miss it? Now how simple can an answer be... and how honest? I dont believe that man was made to sit at a desk. But I do and so may you. Nature designed us to fight the wild beast. To win or to die... and to go to sleep at night. Surely we were not designed to worry about the Dow Jones Industrial Average or an interest payment. today than ever before. Life is an Adventure Do dull. a are bit Times arent real easy these days, but they Perilous indeed. you ever wish that you had been in your prime during World But men are not War II? Perhaps you were. But I wasnt. Life during World made for safe havens. War II was interesting. I know that it was the worst time in peoples lives. And yet it was the most meaningful time for I resolve to be more daring in the last half of my life. those who can remember. They dont have any groups that Cheers, meet every year because they were somewhere in 1954. But J.B. Prince. The Prince Column by John Prince Prince. Langheinrich, & Greer |