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Show A .! I a . a . AyvASSWjiwAyvyAviVAY.'S' six bags of garbage In the same time period. Garbage collection fees should be based on die amount produced. The same should be said of taxes. People who place a heavier burden on die infrastructure of government, those who require more services of government, should be die ones who pay the lion's share of taxes to maintain that infrastructure and those services. And yet. In today's political climate, we see politicians In both political parties moving in the opjxite direction. Instead of fairly distributing the tax burden, both Democrats and Republicans are planning tax credits to families. I only discovered recently that a tax credit is a reduction of your tax liability, not a deduction from income. In other words, if you've calculated your taxes and discover you owe $2000 In federal taxes, the proposed Republican $500 per child tax credit would free a family with four children of any tax debt. None! The Democrats' proposal is not quite so generous, but it still moves in the same direction. We're giving tax credits to the wrong people. What makes sense is the elimination of die current Federal income tax exemption for unlimited numbers of dependent children born after a specified dole. It would be grossly unfair, not to mention political suicide, to change the rules in the middle of the game. And so, families with dependent children now would continue to receive the exemption. But at some point that tax break would end and, based on a proposal by NFG, a new Federal tax credit would be offered only to those parents who chose to have no more than two children. They would lose the tax credit completely if they had a third. Interestingly, NFG would not extend the tax credit to individuals and couples with no children. They argue that they "are not trying to promote a family, because the goal of a reduced Uix population could be reached if maximum family size were limited to two chfidrenJIhe fundamental purpose of a tax exemption or credit for dependent children is.-- to help compensate the parent or parents for the expense of raising diem. That maximum family. In purpose should now be broadened to encourage the annual cash families low if little who to NFG income an addition, proposes grant pay any income taxes, ami who have no more than three children. If families exceeded the two child limit they would lose die cash grant entirety. Personally, I wonder if such a threat to withdraw the cash grant is any more effective than some politicians' threats to withdraw AFDC payments from welfare mothers who won't work. The welfare culture is difficult for anyone to understand who is not, or has never been, a part of it As a former social worker, I sat on the edge looking in for a brief period of time. What I saw was a way of life that had become generational Somehow that cycle must be broken. I'm not sure the promise of cash payments can do the job. t 'f s : 1 no-chi-ld . ru immigrant worker. So my concerns don't fall along duxe lines at alL The real threat is die sheer numbers of people . It realty doesn't matter where any of our residents come from...what matters is that there are too many of us. And that demand on this country's resources is what ultimately matters. Right now, 900,000 legal immigrants enter this country every year. In addition, another 300,000 illegal immigrants settle in the U& annually. NFG supports a reduction, in legal immigration to 100,000 a year and believes that illegal immigration should be stopped altogether. Without that kind of effort population reduction is almost impossible. In fact again according to NFG, if current trends continue, "89 of our population growth in foe next century will come from post-20immigrants and their descendants." 00 The plan for population reduction laid out by NPG seems reasonable. But is it attainable? Or realistic? To accomplish foe goal of cutting U& population in half by foe end of foe next century, our generation must be willing to make sacrifices so that our greatgrandchildren can experience the benefits of our efforts. It would be one of the most selfless acts in the history of humanity because we would never live to see the world we want to create for foe future. It would be a selfless gesture without comparison. Such a dramatic change in our culture requires visionary leadership, but in America today, our leaders will rarely risk taking the country to a place they're not convinced we want to go. Only if we lead the leaden, can we ever hope to see change. But decisive action needs to be taken, and taken soon...Hme is of foe essence. CO two-chil- d , it I i : i I i I l I i i i t i ' But with these measures in place, the US. fertility rate, which now stands at 2.0 could decline to 1.5 by the year 2050. By itself, population would stabilize at 340 million by then and start to decline slowly thereafter. But it's not enough to return the country's population to a livable level To achieve a goal of 125 to 140 million Americans, the issue of immigration must be addressed. And it's a tough one. This country has always been a haven fra: the dispossessed. The Statue of liberty in New York Harbor beckons to the immigrant: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be free." And America has always extended itself to those seeking a new life. But how many more people can our country absorb and assimilate? Personally, I dispute the accusation that immigrants, particularly illegal immigrants, take away jobs from American citizens. Most studies show that immigrants often take the unpleasant jobs that the rest of us wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. And they do die job for a fraction of what the work is worth. In fact, it's that kind of cheap labor that this country's entrepreneurs love. Cheap labor that allows them to keep the price down and allows them to make a killer profit at the Bame time. Everyone wins except the exploited POWERED Negative Papulation Growth (NPG) can be readied ok 210 The Plaza, P.O. Box 1206, Teaneck, NJ 07666-120-6. TeL (201) 837-3555 TOM TILL PHOTOGRAPHY MOAB, UTAH Oh yeah. Stilcs Sunglasses 6 a beard. Now it looks just like me. Money yet again. well-spen- t, BY GLOBALLY INSPIRED CUISINE 92 East Center St. (801) 259-12- 95 |