A6 - Wednesday, January 23, 1985 - North Shore News ast ‘Saturday’s day-long © protest : : | , Scheols crisis L meeting of ‘more than 100 Greater: Vancouver. parents, teachers and school trustees indicates Premier Bennett may . face a bigger. fight over.school budget cut- -backs than he bargained for. . - The overail need for continued government restraint can.hardly be questioned in-light of _ greatly.reduced revenues and a limp economy ‘that threatens to diminish them still further. 7 Meanwhile, along with education,’ the two » other main social service areas---health care “and welfare---also. . have. _pressing and |” legitimate ‘demands: Yet — higher taxation, < which .works: to inhibit economic recovery “even more, would be self-defeating. ‘\. ‘The’only'sane answer for everyone concern- ed is a total review of priorities, beginning : with the government’s.own ‘lavish spending on’. “| +-such controversial projects as Northeast Coal, “Expo °86 and the $400 million bail-out of BC ; Rail. . itself i is still geared to expectations born during ; the boom years. Here, too, new priorities for. “a very different economic future aré urgently needed; Teachers, : in particular, whose cost akes up. over, 70% of. school budgets, have an important ‘role to play i in‘this process. . Cc nfrontation---whether rumblings about civil disobedience: or ‘government ‘threats to : defiant’ school boards---will ultimately nothing. Compromise and a trimming of . resent:demands by. ALL parties now offers the only fasting solutien to the schools, crisis. : Numbers: count “est: Van Commusity Arts Council is © bidding against French immersion ‘in-its :application to: take over the Pauline Johnson. School building as.a theatre © nd‘ cultural, centre.. “If. public service counts, he nod should: go..to’ the’ Arts Council. The umber: “of people whom a ‘cultural centre would serve greatly: exceeds those involved in French immersion: — for. whom, in any case, Cedardale School remains available. _ Display Advertising 980.0511 : Classified Advertising . 986.6222 .Newsrecom 985-2131 Circulation ‘Subscriptions - 985-2131 1138 Lonsdale Ave, Norti Yancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Publiziner Peter Speck Marketing Direcic: Operations Manager , Rober! Graham Berni Hilliard Advertising Director Circulation Dlrecter Dave Jenneson , . Bill McGown Editor-In-Chief Noel Wright Display Advertising Manager Production Director Mike Goodse! Chris Jonnson Glassitied Manager Photography Manager Val Stephenson Terty Peters : North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an indepe. newspaper and qualified under Schedule Il, Pact Itl, f+: fee Excise Tax Act. is published each Wednesday. Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Entire contents © 1985 North Shore Freo Preos Ltd. All rights reserved. Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver, $25. per year. Maing rales available on request. No tesponsivilily accepted for unsolicited maternal inctuding manuscripts and pictures which should be accumpanied by a Slamped, addressed envelope. _Member of the B. C. Press Council 55,770 (average. Wednesday Friday & Sunday) SR". 504 alee THIS PAPER iS RECYCLABLE - At. the ‘same time, the ‘education system 986-1337 A game fit only for I poorer, goes the old saying. But according T HE RICH GET RICHER and the poor-get to. The Financial Post, t the first half of the saying is nonsense. -In a recent analysis i in that venerable organ dedicated:to money . matters, Catherine: Harris. strates © that, even monthly pay cheque today is .a. dizzy $11,725 (that’s $140,700 a year)---and — you’ve ‘had. an average: an- nual increase of eight’ per cent since 1980---you’re still $267 a month poorer than, five years ago. “At the bottom of the scale it’s a similar: story for the mythical ‘average Canadian: wage-earner’’, a species that includes such. diverse .tcilers as garbage truck drivers, li- quor store clerks, bartenders, executive secretaries and statisticians. With $532 a month more in their pay-packet than five. years ago, they have actually $42 less spending money. The thief, of course, is in- flation which added up to a total of almost 44 per cent over the five-year period, FP.. writer * .demon-. - ‘if your. Noel Wright | . while incomes in general rose by less than 41 per cent. Ms. Harris lists specific examples of 1980 salaries, LETTER OF THE DAY Dear Editor: The North Shore News strikes again. The editorial News Message (Jan. 9), once again chooses it’s traditional scapegoat for most of our economic woes i.e. the ‘Big Bad Unions.”’ In trying to make sense of the philosophy of wages, the writer of the piece states that the basic argument for an- nual wage increases is that wages must rise in order to keep up with inflation. The writer conveniently forgets to mention that over the last three years, the average wage increase in the unorganized and organized work force was at or below the annual inflation rate. Also, during the Anti-Inflation Board years, when wages were for- cibly kept below the annual inflation rate, inflation did not drop neticeably. If anything, it rose. Count on the N.S. News not to Jet some other facts which might have a bearing on the whole picutre get in the way of an shows what they have become average yearly increases) and what they SHOULD be to provide the same spending power as five years ago. ‘Thus, our ‘‘average Ca-_ nadian . wage-earner”’, paid’ $15,683 in 1980, now pulls ia” $22,070---but, in fact,:needs - $22,570 to buy what his earlier $15,683 bought. : Corresponding figures as‘ you. move-up. the financial” ‘ladder aré: $30,000 (1980),- $42,210 (1985 -actual),; . $43,170 (1985 needed) «..., $70, 350: (1985 actual), $71,950 (1985 - needed) - class,” ~ $$140,700. ::(1985: .actual), $50,000: (1980); .. in the “tycoon. $100,000 (1980);: $143,900 (1985 needed). It wasn’t always like that. In thé 1960s we averaged a, two per cent ‘‘real’’ increase in -incomes 'AFTER | tion. In the 195Us the ‘‘real’’ increase was three per cent. ” * Then, as inflation took off during the 1970s towards the Stratosphere of the early 1980s, ‘we thought we could beat it by fighting fire with fire. When inflation hit seven Editorial column. Near the end of the editorial, the writer says ‘the construction laborers have concluded that the theory no longer makes sense, selfish or otherwise, until we work our way out of the mess.”" | am assuming that the N.S. News considers itself part of the collective ‘twe'’? jn the previous statement. If so, | am sure I can count on the classified ad which cost me ten dollars a few months ago in the N.S. News to now cost today. (assuming: infla- - ‘per cent, we Semanded : 10: per cent, pay. hikes.” Whe it reached 10 “per cent; wanted 13 per cent.: Wheii i it ; peaked at over 12. per cent,’ we shrieked ‘for 16; percent of more, “because ' seemed no limit i in sight. . -““inflation’: inevitably, -won. As..Ms.:iarris. points: out, higher=.wages .. for. those employed -can mean *fewet .. : “jobs to go round, especially : with productivity boosted by ¢ computers and automation: - The price double-digit: ‘infla- we tion exacted .for’ its ‘viciory was a million and a half’ un: employed---and." “LESS: spend than five years ago for the: 85 per. cent still with ‘jobs... ; .. The. good ews, of’ course, is that inflation. has -now. dropped beiow five per.cent. If.ever.it threatens a com-.. eback, the moral of. Ms. Harris's survey is this: never again try to fight the monster with its own weapons, Doing so doesn’t make the rich richer. It simply makes rich and poor alike a whole lot poorer. It’s a dumb game fit only for losers! Unions always scapegoats me seven dollars. If not, does it mean that the solution to our problems rest only with the union wage earner who even in this province makes up less than 50% of the total work force? Come on N.S. News, break with tradition. Dig a_ little deeper and get all the facts and then present them objec- tively. Only then may you call yourselves a ‘‘news': paper. Larry Borsa North Vancouver there. -_