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Show THE VOICE OF BUSINESS The wisdom of Big Brother 1 By Richard L. Lesher, President Chamber of Commerce of the United Stale Representative Gene Snyder of Kentucky recently came up with some very interesting statistics. From 1973 to 1977, there were 339 drug discoveries worldwide. Seventy-four of those drugs were discovered in this country, but all but 18 of them were put to use in other countries before being approved here. Thus, while the U.S. ranks first in discoveries worldwide, thanks to the FDA, we are only ninth in overall speed in putting them to use saving lives. A typical example: In the 1950's, a medical miracle was discovered in the form of a body glue, which, when applied ap-plied as a fine mist, could stop bleeding from open wounds and glue human tissues together. The process was used extensively in Vietnam where it saved hundred of lives, and it held great promise as a future cure for internal bleeding, 'ulcers and strokes, But today, 25 years later, Rep. Snyder notes the companies have finally given up trying to gain FDA approval of their body glue. So instead of marketing it as a miraculous medical tool, they are not selling it in discount stores as a general purpose household glue. HOW FAST DO YOUR NAILS GROW? Now before you start thinking the FDA has just been sitting on its hands all these years, doing nothing to protect the public, let me set the record straight. As it turns out, for the past five years, the agency has been conducting con-ducting some very intensive research of its own on nail biting and thumb sucking. So intensive, in fact, that now the FDA has become knowledgeable enough to: alert us that nails normally grow at the rate of 0.1 millimeter daily, and that for those who bite their nails the rate is double; inform us that nail biting occurs in 45 percent of preadolescent children, 25 percent of college students and 10 percent of adults; warn us that nail biting is sometimes a matter of discontent, pressure, or maladjustment, and most often occurs "in a stressful situation," and, finally, reassure us that thumb sucking "usually stops spontanously at about age four." Feel better now? HOW FAST DO YOU READ? The U.S Chamber has a federal spending clock in its lobby so visiting taxpayers can see how fast the government is spending their money. . Currently, the second hand must tick off over a million dollars a minute just to keep pace with the federal budget. Senator Gordon Humphrey nf Hampshire recently devised L, means of describing Uncle austerity in action. It goes like thi If you are a person at least 21 year,' age, with average reading i?1 earning approximately the JS? income (about $13,000 a year) v planning to work till the age of & li! by the time you have finished roi 01 the rest of this sentence, the fn government will have already 7' more money than you could make a? J present salary for the rest of working life. HOMEMADE WORK is .'' AGAINST THE LAW Mrs. Duffany is a nice woman a f stays home and makes ski hats whi she then sells to CB Sports, inc V Bennington, Vermont. She makes ti hats to supplement her husbair " Social Security. She makes them home because she is an invalid i The Department of Labor showed compasssion when it recently trier take Mrs. Duffany's job away Labor Department did then whet'"3 sued CB Sports of violating the Fw Labor Standards Act by letting ,J 1 ployees work at home. This Act, foe you've forgotten, was designed to t"16" "sweat shop" abuse in large ciuV1 requiring all work be done iia regulated factory environment Aiina whether Mrs. Duffany, who consic.-us : herself self-employed, cares to protected in such a manner, jent'. assistant administrator of DoL's'wiliqi and hour division, Herbert Colje replied: "(The Department) doeiit : work to let workers decide if they & by protecting." "DON'T- KILL THE GOLDEynia' GOOSE," SNAPPED THE RAT as From National Review, Oct. 31, irth "Two economists at Texas A&MJindr been using laboratory rats fori5to periments in economic behavior. "JS F what do you know even rats resp11'3 to the rules of the free market.:)""1 instance, in controlled experiments a rats decide how much to won12 various pay scales, and take moreen off when wages are high. They alati make consumption decisions f' bei depend on their income and on c-7 is modify prices. All of this is flatf free-market behavior. (Sa(j But when the researchers simulrati government meddling, with 'welf Sen. payments to the rats, their behsrovid ' becaffle-erfaticarid InecpMWj 1kls i come increased precisely the oppC le of socialist theory. We'll bet this ii'anii first time the socialists have refuse heli believe findings based on laboraA E rats." 'eas !iite ary Andr |