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Show i !j jfF lElq Profit...the best news yet tired as Dad does and they should get just as much understanding un-derstanding and appreciation. While the politicians were searching everywhere for some indication of an economic ec-onomic recovery from the inflation, depression depres-sion and unemployment which has plagued our economy the last few years, there was 1 one solid report of optimism. One major company reported a third-quarter profit of $1 billion, and another reported a profit of $800 million In that same period. These reports should have been greeted with wild enthusiasm by the press and television tele-vision reporters, as well as by the politl-; politl-; clans, but such was not the case. In the m edla, these reports were greeted with such epithets as "vulgar," "dirty," and "unconscionable." "un-conscionable." To many of these shortsighted short-sighted reporters, such a profit can only mean that such corporations have to be dishonest. dis-honest. Tragically, to the politicians who want the American people to depend on them, the report of a solid profit by American business is not always good news. But to those who have studied the free -enterprise system and who recognize its superiority over every other system ever tried by man, the reports of record profits were the very best kind of news. It Is good news to the man or woman who has been out of work. It is good news to the young college student who is wondering if there Is going to be a job waiting for him when he graduates. And it is good news to the students stu-dents of history and philosophy who have known for a long time .... that without ; profit enough to provide expension and new jobs, our free enterprise system would be rlnnmaH Now, If America can just keep this trend going, if we can prevent the politicians from taking this profit away in the form of increased in-creased taxes, there is real hope for a real economic recovery In America. That would mean real hope for continued freedom In America. Profit is not a dirty or ugly word. It Is the energy which fuels freedom itself. Without With-out profit, there can be no jobs save the make -work jobs of total government ownership owner-ship of the means of production. Profit, in the case of the corporation, Is what is left after the cost of production and marketing is paid. In the case of the small businessman, business-man, it Is what is 'aft over after he pays those same costs, in the case of the wage-earnc wage-earnc , profit is what he is able to save from his salary after paying the cost of the essentials of living .... food, clothing, shelter, etc. While most Americans do not think of this latter source as profit, the savings of individual Americans is right now fueling the most important Indicator of economic recovery. There has been a spurt in new home building starts . . .-. and the money for home -building comes from the savings of individual salaried Americans for the most part. Right now, some $500 billion from the savings accounts of individuals .... the profit on their salaries if you please .... is the investment capital source for the homebuilding industry. That is free -enterprise working as it should. A weary figure shuffles up the front steps just at the sun goes down, drags himself him-self into the living room, and plops on the sofa with a mighty sigh. That's Dad, coming home from a hard day at work, right? Wrong. That's nine -year-old Tommy, back from a difficult day with fourth grade arithmetic. What we've just described is evidence of some thing that many parents don't quite understand. un-derstand. It's this: Learning Learn-ing is hard work. I have seen youngsters scrape black marks on the classroom floor with their heels an Involuntary act that showed how intent they were on their reading. I remember re-member a boy asking me for a piece of scratch paper to use while he worked on a math test. Seconds later, he asked for another piece of paper. He'd ruined the first piece with his sweaty palms. Once, a father told me he could tell the days his daughter daugh-ter had a lot of playground time at school, because those were the days she was super -tired. "She came home from school yesterday and slept 40 minutes," he said. "Your daughter didn't get out on the playground yesterday," yes-terday," I replied. "She spent most of the day in class taking achievement tests." Some kids register their intensity in school by chewing chew-ing the erasers off their pencils. Some chew their nails. They're under particular stress when they are learning learn-ing a new process. If a student stu-dent doesn't fully understand it from the very first, he or she could get anxious. Many r times, anxiety stimulates ef-, ef-, fort, and that gives rise to success. 1 When your child comes "home from school happy, it doesn't necessarily mean the youngster has had a great day in school. On the other hand, a tired, spent student m ay have experienced magnificent mag-nificent successes. Students should have just as much right to come home |