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Show H Page 10 The Utah Independent November 4, 1976 MARILYN MAN ION SCAPECOATS During the first of the televised debates between the Republican and Democratic candidates for the Presidency, many words were broadcast on the subjects of taxing and Each contender spending. tried to assure the voters out there in the audience that, if he were elected, taxes for most of us -would not rise. Jimmy Carter allowed as how it was his intention to have poor compassion middle-and-lower-cla- for the ss American wagearners. It isnt fair, he said, that they have to pay taxes that should have been actually paid by the rich corporations. In fact, he avowed, every penny not gouged out of these rich corporations has to come from the pockets of -- - you the average guessed- it - American. Close some loopholes, and - voila! A savings for the good guys. -- This approach to the problem of exorbitant taxes neatly kills two. birds with one stone. First, it gives us a convenient scapegoat; and somebody to blame hate for our pressing tax burdens: the corporations. Then, if we have properly swallowed the bait, we are meant to forget that its the - government, not the corporations, that forcibly extracts big chunks from every paycheck we earn. Goodness knows Americans have to be angry at somebody. Look at the price of gasoline! Must be the oil companies sitting on top of their wells creating false shortages and higher prices. Very few of us stop to think of the facts that (1 ) it is exorbitantly expensive to search for and possibly discover oil and (2) we depend on foreign sources for nearly half the oil we consume. It is much simpler and less brain taxing to - - - demand that the government force the 18 largest oil companies in the country to break up and be restructured, although such action would do nothing to stop the rise of pretroleum prices. If the OPEC members increase the price of crude oil by SI. SO a barrel, as they are expected to do in December, we will all be paying more for no matter how gasoline much the government punishes 18 Big Oil, as the top companies are known. What we ought to be doing instead of blaming the oil companies is increasing the tax incentives to encourage the search for and drilling of more wells; concentrating on more uses for coal as a source of energy; working on both nuclear and solar energy development programs. the worlds limited supply of fossil fuel runs dry, we ought to be ready with an alternative. When our consumption outran our production some time back, an energy program ought to When have been developed. Jimmy Carter Is right on that point: we have no real national energy policy. The Paper That Dares To Take A Stand but such steps are and be done wiibit difficult to take, and if we admit that we need an energy policy we admit that we ought to conserve what energy we have meanwhile. That notion is anathema to Americans. Its easier to blame the rich corporations -- American Way curb! -- Orben's Current Commedy say we are. -- Honore de Balzac ARMS questions are welcome. Please write us at "The American Way Features ", P.O. Box 990, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 37863. THREAT TO FREE ENTERPRISE Overregulation of American business and industry has brought widespread fears that American free enterprise is losing much of its freedom, and that the power of decision is being taken from business and placed in the hands of acbureaucrats, government cording to Utah Foundation. In a research report released this week, the Foundation, the public service private, non-proagency, called attention to the proliferation of Federal regulatory agencies in recent years and to the lack of accountability of those making and enforcing the new regulations. fit Many observers in government, in business, and among lay citizens feel that the most frightening aspect of the mass of government regulation is that it is drawn up and enforced by appointees and employees of government agencies who are not directly responsible Nine days after "the shot heard round the world," the Committee of Safety sent this urgent, strongly worded letter to the towns of Massachusetts and simibr letters were sent throughout the colonies. During the coming year, the Continental Army would be formed; the war for independence had begun! years between 1934 and 1938: the Federal Communications Comand mission, the Securities from Utah Foundation Salt Lake Gty, Utah to the American people through any established channel, the Foundation report notes. Many feel that the regulators are not even indirectly responsible to the people. They appear to be immune to firm' control by the peoples elected representatives in either the legislative or executive branches of ' Agencies of the government. executive branch of government are usurping the legislative function by writing rules and regulations that expand on or even differ from the laws enacted by Congress. Concern over government regulation of American life is not restricted to businessmen and aroused private citizens, the Foundation points out. Many people in the executive and legislative branches of government share concern. President Ford estimates that the cost to the American consumer of unnecessary and wasteful government regulation amounts to SI 30 billion a year, an average of $2,000 for every American family. Senator Hubert Humphrey, a noted liberal, has questioned whether bureaucrats regulations implement the laws or rather serve to impede or obstruct them. He publicly called for periodic reviews of Mthe rules and regulations of each department of government, and for an economic impact study or evaluation of every rule and regulation and of everypiece of Regulation of American business and industry dates back nearly 90 years. The Interstate Commerce Commission was authorized in 1887. More than forty years later, the Federal Power Commission was instituted, in 1930. Four more regulatory giants were created in the depression We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never either so wretched or so happy as we A DESPERATE CALL TO Features Readers' comments and legislation we pass. Nowadays a kid thinks hes roughing it if the school bus doesnt pull in to the ' Exchange the Commission, Federal Maritime Commission, and the Gvil Aeronautics Board. These agencies regulate specific industries of national scope and vital importance to the economy. Their twin objectives are to safeguard the public interest and to watch over the welfare of the regulated industries themselves. Within the past decade there have appeared a large number of additional Federal regulatory agencies which do not fit into the classic pattern established by the Interstate Commerce Com- mission, the Foundation points out. They are not concerned with the totality of any single industry, but only with the specific segment of operations which falls under their jurisdiction. In the words of a noted American economist, this limitation can result in a total lack of concern over the effects of their actions on the company or industry as a whole. . . matters such as productivity, economic growth, employment, effect on over-a- ll living standards, inflationary impacts, may be ignored. Among the new generation of Federal regulatory agencies are the Environmental Protection Agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Ad- ministration, the Consumer Cambridge, April 28, 1775 Gentlemen: The barbarous murders committed on our innocent brethren on Wednesday the 19th instant have made it absolutely necessary that we immediately raise an army to defend our wives and children from the butchering hands of an inhuman soldiery, who, incensed at the obstacles they met with in their bloody progress, and enrated at being repulsed from the field of slaughter, will, without doubt, take the first opportunity in their power to ravage this devoted country with fire and sword. We conjure, therefore, by all that is dear, by all that is sacred, that you give all assistance possible in forming the army. Our all is at stake. Death and devastation are the certain consequences of delay; every moment is infinitely precious; an hour lost may deluge your country in blood and entail perpetual slavery upon the few of your posterity who may survive the carnage. We beg and entreat, as you will answer it to your country, to your own conscience, and, above all, to God himself, that you will hasten and encourage, by all possible means, the enlistment of men to form the army, and send them forward to head quarters at Cambridge, with that expedition which the vast importance and instant urgency of the affair demands. Product Safety Administration, and others. Reprinted from Pitney Bowes Americans concerned with the brochure, " How Letters Helped of overregulation Unite the States of America " dangers generally do not quarrel with the objectives of the new regulatory Strength and justice in men agencies and are aware that many of the programs have produced and beauty and tenderness in substantial benefits,' the Foun- woman are the cardinal virtues dation notes. They do question the upon which the sexes build their ideals and hopes. propriety of placing avowed Contributed by Fred W. Morrison partisans in positions where clear headed objectivity is imperative for the making of sound decision, and Watch your words for where unsound decisions are a horse sense is seldom threat to our entire ecnoomy. hitched to a waggin Some specific objections tongue! brought against government regulators which the Foundation illustrates with recorded examThe darkest hour lies ples are that the regulatory agennearest the dawn. cies: Fail to balance benefits against cost. Issue regulations that conflict with one another. Deliberately misrepresent facts that challenge their own views. Impose an unreasonable burden of paperwork on American industry. Take and arbitrary unreasonable actions that may do irreparable harm to innocent parties. Concentrate on trivia and technicalities to the exclusion of common sense. Satan is to be avoided as lion, dreaded as a serpent, but above all to be feared as an angel of light. a Prayer will drive sin out of your life, or sin will drive prayer out. i Few of us get what we deserve, for which most of us should be thankful. Forgive and forget. When you make two people happy, one of them is apt to be you. -- Adam Feuerstein Nothing is so infectious or important as setting a good example. ' ; I When you bury a mad dog, Jont leave his tail above the ground. - Charles Iladdon Spurgeon |