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Show i if : THE VOICE OF BUSINESS i: The Kecsgein riotfs? By Richard L. Lesher, Pres. Chamber of Commerce of the United States By the summer of 1982, American cities will be afflicted with riots similar to the recent disturbances in Great Britain--a by-product of Reagan economic policies and renewed racial tension. That is the suggestion of a number of journalists in recent weeks who have tried to portray the turmoil in Britain as a harbinger of similar troubles in this country once the President's budget restraints take effect. This parallel is foolish at best, and at worst, a prime example of irresponsible irrespon-sible journalism. To equate the economic policies of President Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is inaccurate enough. Despite good intentions, Mrs. Thatcher has presided over sharp increases in-creases in government spending as well , as doubling of Britain's value-added tax. The President's approach is exactly the opposite: To slow the growth of spending and reduce the tax burden. Even more indefensible is the notion that the Reagan economic program, especially its reliance on the private sector to secure prosperity for our people, is a prescription for economic misery. By cutting so much as $35 billion from a federal budget which will exceed $700 billion, these commentators com-mentators suggest, the President is tearing apart the very fabric of our society. There will be no jobs, no hope, and eventually, no law-and-order in our cities once this plan is carried out. The most extreme expression of this attitude that federal spending programs are the cure-all, catch-all and end-all of American society comes from Washington Post writer Henry Fairlie, who stated recently: 'The private sector cannot invite the poor into its supermarkets. ..The citizenship in the supermarket and in the commercials com-mercials can be granted only by government." And then, he issues a blunt warning: "Can you get that. Mrs. Thatcher? Can you get that. President Reagan? If you do not, even though you do not intend it, your gutters will one day run with blood." But wait a minute. Didn't the worse wave of urban riots this nation has ever experienced occur at the very crept of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society spending binge in the mid-1960's'' Well, er, yes, admit Great Society liberals, but that was because we succeeded in raising the expectations of the poor-ex poet at ions which couldn't be matched by economic performance. What they refuse to admit is that the poor became the victims of over-promising over-promising politicians who insisted that if we simply waved the magic wand of federal spending over poverty, j .1 would all but disappear. In'fe. I. federal government attempts failed at precisely what Mr. j claims we should still be today: to increase the weafttj group of Americans by tafciiv from another group. Ins&i .' federal government with its t ! budgets, punitive taxes aai -regulation, has hamperrf jj productivity and undermiir: . earnings of aU Americans. e To correct this, President h. : has formulated a program imi: :; segments of our society sfe 5 burden of that budget a. & '. promised no overnight miracle :. -but he has sought to remove ri- i the shackles w hich have beet cl- t: on the private enterprise syr.?-; i the inception of the Great Soer is had done so in recognitix of ir: l fact-that private enter;- s America is responsible forther; i and most evenly distributed t-:- t prosperity in man's history i Rioting is about the most jf- ! form of lawlessness that car. f. - modern society, because itisK " r of an isolated criminal but i';: rlostructiveness on a ir.iss ' Before Mr. Fairlie and other;: : about any further predict: e comparisons arising from L recent riots. I suggest theycSa facts, their history and their t;or f i. 2 |