6 - Sunday, Nov. 15, 1992 - North Shore News FINALLY! ... A CHANCE. Te GET THINGS RUNNING SmMooTYLy. ER... WHAT'S THAT RUMBLING SOUND? Machine-made incomes for non-workers WHAT CAN U.S. president-elect Bill Clinton — aad all other national leaders — do about chronic unemployment, when galloping technology is stealing more and more jobs from an ever-growing labor force? Living history FORMAL decision has yet to be , made, ut the writing is clearly here on the tired walis of Pres- entiation, House: it will Ekely soon be a piece of history no longer with us. If so, that’s a shame. _ ‘The building, although much altered and added to over the years, is ranked in she North Vaucouver City heritage inventory listing as a building of secondary impor- tauce. According to the heritage inventery author, the designation is based on archi- tectural, historical and contextual criteria. The Presentation Howse structure dates back to 1902, with sdditions made in 1907. It was once North Vancouver school and then Central school. The North Vancouver city hall was bas- ed there from 1925 to 1975. It has since developed into a facility housing 2 160-seat theatre, a photo gallery, a museum, archives, and the offices of the Nerth Vancouver Community Arts Coun- cil. Clearly, the city-owned building is in disrepair. Yet it has served the city well and con- tinues to do so. It is living history. The Saint Alice hotel is listed in the city inventory as a heritage building of primary importance. It has since been demolished and replaced by a shiny new site-profii- maximizing residential tower. The city catalog of ‘‘existing heritage resources’’ was put together a few years ago ‘‘to provide a starting point for the planning and implementation of future heritage policies.’’ When considering the specific fate of Presentation House, council must consider whether it supports a living hisiory of ‘‘ex- isting heritage resources’’ or a past rele- gated to history books. “7 tefl them that 1 don't wear this uniform when I’m mowing the lawn, and theyre surprised to of his job. radio, on the most enjoyable part Graham Adams, owner of Canasafund, on the recovery of pizzas pilfered during the recent hear that we will actually walk around in shorts and T-shirts."’ North Vancouver RCMP officer Dan Cochlan, on the misconcep- tions some local students have about police officers. “Being a professional smart-ass."" « Kerry Holley, aka Kerry Mar- shall news director at CFOX . .Peter Speck hy Renshaw “HE you do what you do best and love doing it, success will come naturally.’’ Todd Edmondson, a partner in North Vancouver's Terminal Video Listing (TVL) Inc., on one of the keys to success. “The box was a little soggy, but the deluxe pizzas inside were unharmed.” Display Advertising 280-0511 Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Argyle Drama Club pizza sale. “§ don’t know why [ do it. 1 practically have a_i nervous breakdown every time I deliver 2 painting."” Portrait painter Suzanna Blunt, of West Vancouver, on the de- mands of the art form. Distribution 986-1337 Subscriptions 983-1337 Noel Wright Linda Stewart . .Doug Foot Sales & Marketing Director Newsroom Comptrotier North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an izdependent suburban newspaper and qualified uader S:shedule 111, Paragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and aisttibuted to every door on the North Shore. Secon Class Mail istration Numer 3885. Sutscriptions North and Wes! Vancouver, $25 pe: year. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome but we cannoi accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed ervaiope. V7M 2H4 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Fax north shore | i gre 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, ~ North Vancouver, B.C. $85-3227 Adnunistration 985-2131 MEMBER 985-2131 4 ] 61,582 {average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1952 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Alf rights reserved. What’s the long term answer to computers and automation pro- viding all of society’s material needs with less ard less and less human help? Consider this statistic. From 1984 to 1991 the high-tech and low-skill sectors between them created 421,000 new jobs, but in the end only 138,000 were added to the IJabor market. Why? Because meanwhile 283,000 jobs were LOST — 97% of them in the low-skill sector. If you’re slinging hamburgers or pumping gas, that's obviously a strong reason to go back to school and take a computer course. But it’s often impossible financially. And in any case, the very nature of high-tech jobs means an even- tual slowing of THEIR growth too. Wilfred Laurier University’s John Farina put it all in a nutshell a decade ago. ‘‘Man invented machines so man would not have to work,”’ he pointed out, ‘‘and we've succeeded to the point of one and a half million unem- ployed.'’ Nor did he see in it any cause for Gespair. Professor Farina’s thesis is that the biggest “‘problem’’ — though actually an opportunity — now facing the western world is LEISURE, and that the first vital step towards handling it is psychological. Forget outdated values like the Work Ethic. Make unemployment anormal, respectable and even desirable way of life. Abolish most vocational courses in favor of social education. ‘*Put less em- phasis on teaching people how to make a living and more on teaching them how to live,”’ is the Farina prescription. Figuring out what they live on, of course, is another thing again — though there'd be no basic problem in financing a world where most people no longer work. Ultimately, technology alone with very little day-by-day human input would keep the economy growing. However, an entirely new way of distributing the wealth of such an economy would have to be in- vented. Not only to supply everyone’s material needs but also the mass of NON-material needs there would then be time to enjoy. Welcome though the escape from wage slavery might be, just gazing into space or even watching TV for 16 hours a day isn’t most MICRAEL INGHAM... homecoming. Noel Wright _ a ok HITHER AND YON folks’ idea of a fun life. They’re into sport, recreation, arts, music, hobbies, travel, good causes like helping others and sav- ing the environment, together with physical, mental and spizitual self-improvement of every kind. All of which would have to be provided from the riches gener- ated by the almost worker-less Brave New World. Crazy, you say. What on earth is our scribe smoking? No Uio- pian scheme to hand out machine-made wealth that nobody has ‘‘earned”’ will ever work — because human beings are com-_ petitive animals addicted to greed, envy, hatred, power-lust and lots of other nasty habits. But forget about human fail- ings. Today’s reality is that nothing can now stop the high- tech revolution from gobbling up — the shrinking jobs ever more peo- ple are chasing. So in the end a system in which machines earn the INCOMES — not pogey — for. non-workers to enjoy with dignity is inevitable. That, or social chaos. Such is the real challenge, not so far down the road, facing Bill Clinton and every other western leader. One hopes they grasp it. TAILPIECES: Welcome back to the Coast former West Van priest the Very Rev. Michael fnagham, now installed as Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver. After leaving St. Francis-in- the-Wood he spent four years as principal secretary to the Anglican Primate, Archbishop Michael Peers, in Toronto -— travelling on church assignments to England, the U.S., Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. ... Economics with a sense of humor is on the menu Thursday, Nov. 19, when Roslyn Kunix addresses the 11:45 a.m. North Van Chamber of Commerce iunch meeting at the North Shore Winter Club. Regional Economist with Employment and Immigration Canada, Rostyn is one of B.C.’s most sought-after guest speakers. ... And meanwhile, wish happy birthday temorrow, Nov. 16, to Mt. Seymour Lion Jokn Hiitea. WRIGHT OR WRONG: inside every senior lives a young person wondering what happened?