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Show The Paper That Dares To Take A Stand Page 10 The Utah Independent August 26, 1976 and the demand for any given item, the sense that no individual would CLICHES OF SOCIALISM whether it be relatively abundant willingly create or buy them in any Foundation for Economic or relatively scarce. If prices are such quantity at his own expense. Education, Inc., Irvington-o- n free to fluctuate and reflect the true And such projects surely divert Hudson, New York THE SCOTT ) -- market situation, the conditions of ' a devotee of private scarcity or surplus are free market, limited avoided. When so-call- ed property, his states principles government position, he is inevitably confronted Shortages and Surpluses with a barrage of socialistic cliches. Both scarcity and surplus, Failure to answer these has effectively for then, are problems arising out of silenced many a spokesman freedom. totalitarian and bureaucracy Here are suggested answers to do not result some of the most persistent of the government; they free from the play of market forces. Cliches of Socialism." These are not the only answers or even the best posScarcity or surp luses stem from efsible answers; but they may help you or forts to fix the price of a good or others to develop better explanations of service either lower or higher than the ideas on liberty that are the only be agreed upon through effective displacement for the empty might competition between willing sellers promises of socialism. rather Wed surpluses have than shortages. Government-planne- d ' agricultural aren't programs working out in the Soviet Union, or in Red China, or in other countries under totalitarian rule. For some reason, the plans have gone awry and there isnt enough food to go around. The United States, at the same time, is plagued with more foodstuffs and other farm products than consumers seem to want Many Americans, who know perfectly well why Russian and Chinese peasants are facing a greater than ordinary threat of are starvation, thoughtlessly saying: Wed rather have problems of surplus than of scarcity. And lets not change the nature of our problems by aping the methods of totalitarian governments that substitute the decisions of bureaucrats for the decisions of the market place. The leak in that line of logic is that American surpluses do not stem from decisions of the market The market encourages place. conservation of any resource in short supply and discourages further production, of goods or services for which there may be a dwindling demand. Rising prices freely bid by consumers for a scarce resource tell present owners to handle with care the supplies on hand while doing their best to produce or obtain more of the item. Declining prices, on the other hand, as reflected by decisions of the market place, tell consumers producers alike that the item is abundant, that possibly new or increased use ought to be made of it, and that there is no great urgency to supply more of it at the moment. In other words, the market place reflects at once the best judgment of those buyers and sellers most closely concerned and most able to do something about the supply of and buyers in a free market. Shortages are to be expected when prices are fixed too low to bring forth a supply equal to the demand. Miscalculations of totalitarian planners direct resources into improper uses, and starvation may be the price people then have to pay. If prices are artificially pegged so high that production outruns use, then surpluses develop. This, too, is a miscalculation, or misdirection of scarce and valuable resources; and the people pay, in one way or another. Surpluses of farm products are well known to Americans of the century wheat, cotton, butter, peanuts, and what not production being subsidized and use discouraged to provide a g example of wasted mid-twenti- eth world-shockin- resources. True, Americans are not starving for food. It is abundant. But a man may hunger for many things for himself and his family. He lives not by bread alone. ...Seldom seen or seriously contemplated are the frustrated ambitions and undeveloped alternatives to which taxpayers might otherwise have devoted their energy, ingenuity, and property. A person might have preferred an education for himself or his child, or medical attention, or a home of his own, or funds for research and development of an idea, or op- portunity for rest and recuperation, or many other things more important to him than a surplus of wheat. Who knows how many dreams indeed, how many lives have been dashed by the and buried under those mountains of surplus? Furthermore, some of our most wasteful surpluses are not even recognized as such because the government apparently has unlimited use for all the moon shots or new aircraft designs or urban renewal plans or defense highways or other projects that irresponsible government spending can develop. These are surpluses in tax-gather- er resources from a thousand and one other uses owners might have had in mind. As a national average, taxes take over a third of personal income to support bureaucratic But a much higher decisions. income is taken, of proportion through graduated federal, state, and local taxes, from the more creative and thrifty members of society. And these shortages tha t appear to hit hardest the wealthy few are, in reality, borne by the poor who can least afford trips to the moon. Ou r lives are thereby diminished, our potentialities unfulfilled. But these are shortages or lost opportunities for progress that no bureaucrat could possibly recognize or measure; nor is it possible to hold a bureaucrat accountable or responsible for the impact of his actions on others. tax-inflict- ed REPORT THE LIFE-DEAT- ISSUE Bv H Paul Scott Kansas City, Mo.: Regardless of the outcome of the razor-clos- e Presidential nomination fight, delegates here have succeeded in setting the stage to make the massive killing of the unborn one of the major domestic issues if not the most important during the coming campaign. By writing into the partys platform, a plank calling for the adoption of a Constitutional Amendment to restrict abortion, rank and file Republicans have laid the for the groundwork Republican party to become the party to at least restrict if not end this unprecedented slaughter. The Republican partys Personal Responsibility Now, it may be that, by your standard, or mine, some individuals wastefully use their own lives and their own resources. This, of course, if unfortunate. But, at least, the life a private citizen wastes is his own; it is his own fortune that he dissipates; he is held responsible and accountable for his own mistakes. He has no power to tax his more productive or thrifty fellow citizens to cover his personal failures and deficits. By and large, position is in direct contrast to that endorsed by the Democrats at their convention in New York City last month. The Democrats went on record as opposing any action that would upset the January, 1973 Supreme Court decision, which opened the floodgate for the legalized killing of the unborn at a rate now averaging 1,200,000 a his power to down-grad- e society is limited to the damage he can do to himself and his own; there is no nominee Jimmy Carter, has in effect made the Carter-Monda- le team anathema to the growing pro- way for him to pyramid a personal life disaster into a national calamity. And to the extent that he is held personally responsible, he has the maximum incentive to take corrective action at the earliest possible opportunity. This is why general shortages or surpluses do not and cannot develop under competitive private enterprise in a free market. Both shortages and surpluses, whether Russian .or Chinese or American, are a consequence of substituting the decisions of the market place. The same miscalculation that results in a shortage or surplus of one thing affects the supply-demaadversely relationship for other and theres nothing things, constructive that bureaucrats can do about it except to stand aside and let the market function. American bureaucrats are no better than those of any other nationality when it comes to making socialism work. It cant be done. 29,000,000 Catholic voters in the U.S. nd Paul L Poirot year. This uncompromising stand, taken at the time with the backing of Democratic Presidential movement The among mushrooming portance of this moral-politic- al the imis- sue was highlighted last week in Congress when the House for the second time within a month voted (223-13- to support 0) an amendment by Representative to the multiHenry Hide (R.-Ill- .) billion dollar ap propria tion bill for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) ending taxpayer funding of abortions. The vote cleared the way for a new confrontation on the highly explosive abortion issue in the Senate when Congress returns after the GOP convention and the summer recess. The more liberal Senate voted earlier (37-2not to ban the payments, which now total more than S33 million a year under programs administered by the HEW and involve anywhere from 300,000 to 330,000 abortions. Whether the Democratic-con-trolle- d Senate will change its mind about this questionable use of 8) taxpayer money is debatable in light of Carters growing concern that the partys stand could seriously hurt him among Catholic voters throughout the pro-aborti- on country. THE CARTER - MANEUVER In a move designed to- try to isolate the pro - With one Rockefellers Ford on one party s ticket, another Rockefellers Carter on the other partys ticket, what we have is hardly a choice. Am 'Never mind, Henry, you do not really have to fight again. towel again." I will throw in the I opposition to his candidacy among Catholics, Carter granted an exclusive interview with Jim Castelli of the National Catholic News Service. He expressed his disagreemtnt with the Democratic campaign platform but without life en-dorsi- ng a Constitutional Amendment that would end the massive killing. If elected President, Carter said he would do everything pos- sible to minimize abortion under whatever rulings the Court might have in effect at that particular time. As an example, he said he would oppose using federal funds to pay for abortions of any kind. While Carter's opposition to the use of federal taxpayers monies for abortions is welcomed, pro-lif- e leaders say his Pilate-lik- e position 1973 on the January, Supreme Court decision would permit the killing of 6,000,000 of the nation's future citizens during the next four years. To test Carters sincerity on banning funds for abortion. Prolife leaders are now asking him to urge Senate Democrats to support the move to bar this large-scafinancing of abortions. THE HELMS VICTORY le The of the acceptance constitutional amendment restricting abortion in the partys platform by both Ford and Reagan delegates was a major victory for ), the Senator Jesse Helms e in forces the leader of the pro-lifSenate who has become a national A figure at the convention. dedicated Deacon in the Baptist Church, Helms is one of the most deeply religious men in the Senate. Helms strategy to turn the abortion issue into the number one human rights debate of our times appears to be succeeding. His insistence on a strong party platform against abortion and his raising of the issue in the Senate has forced both parties and individual members of Congress to take positions they tried to avoid. The coming campaign and the showdown votes in Congress should give voters a true indicator on exactly where the Presidential and Congressional candidates stand on this issue. As reported more than a year ago, the protection of the right to life of the nations unborn is really the sleeper issue of the 1976 campaign. There is no chance that it will go away. With countless millions of lives at stake, the issue can only grow. The issue involves the souls of all Americans. Note: The American Party headed by Publisher Tom Anderson was the first to go on record for a Constitutional Amendment to protect the right to life of the unborn. (R-NC- jn 1775 we were warned that Re(jcoats were coming, as in 1976 we are warned that the Reds are here; both intent upon denying us independence as a free nation. therefore become your enemy, because tell you the truth? - Galatians 4: 1 6 UUUI-.NDBLA- j I |