A6 - Wednesday, September 5, 1984 - North Shore News Herculean task he winning party in yesterday’s election will have a very short honeymoon. The voters have chosen it because they want not only action, but FAST action, on restoring the spirit of confidence that alone can bring renewed prosperity. That, in turn, depends on three urgent steps being taken by the new government: eA vigorous attack on unemployment through encouragement of the private sector, especially small business. eAn equally vigorous attack on Canada’s annual $30 billion deficit. eThe maintenance of the social safety net to protect the jobless, sick and aged -— par- ticularly until a revived economy enables many more of them to stand on their own feet again. The government’s horrendous ac- cumulated debt of around $180 billion makes this a Herculean task. It will likely prove im- possible without additional taxation which, however, works as a further brake on private endeavor, the vital engine of long term re- covery. Any extra taxes must be kept to an absolute minimum. That leaves only one area for financial manoenvre: a ruthless onslaught against waste and inefficiency in government itself. A slashing of all non-essential expenditures. A much leaner, more productive public ser- vice. A sharp scalpel taken to Crown Cor- porations. And the building of a new climate of cooperation with labor and the provinces. Wish yesterday’s winners luck. No vic- torious party has ever needed it more. Space challenge ven the geniuses who put a man on the moon have so far failed at what appears to be an equally daunting challenge: how to make the biff work on the space shut- tle Discovery. So far they’ve spent $12 million and five years trying unsuccessfully to devise a toilet that doesn’t plug up in orbit. The trou- ble may be that they gave the job to engineers with Stanford doctorates, but sometimes you can get too fancy. We bet our local plumber could have fixed the thing in a day — at only half the cost. Disptay Advertising north shore news DAY - WHERE REPAY - FHTUDAY Newsroom Circulation Subscriptions 1139 Lonsdate Ave.. North Vancouver, 8. C V7M 2H4 Publisher Peter ope Editor-in-Chiet Noel Wright Classified Manager Val Stephenson Associate Publisher Robert Graham Tim b rancis Personne! Director Bern Milhard Bill McGown Production Director (has Johnson Photography Manager Terry Peters North Shore News, founded 1 1964 an an independent suburban newspaper aod qualified under Scheduio Wi Part tt Paragraph TH of the tacino Tan Act in published each Wednesday | niday and Sunday by North Shore free Press Utd aod dintabuted to every door on the North Store Second (dans Maw Heginstration Number i605 tire contenta ‘ 1984 North Shore Free Presa Ltd All rights reserved Subscriptions North and Wool vancouver $45 por year Mailing salon avadatto of co cgiuert! No feagorenatalety de ergotexch tee seve rine em Manan Mpty and pictures wheat sheonshy toe an addressed COvetope Member of the B.C. Press Council « BDA OIMEON Material ive tuchray Compared: Dy a obaerapperd 65.770 (ave age Wednesday Pooday & Sunday) THIS PAPER tS RECYCLABLE 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 880-2707 Advertising Director Circulation Director HE lj y j YA mer eR Wy y/ Yj, ak, y yy WMA What to do wi Y LOCAL SUPERMARKET has just dragged me one step deeper into the com- puter age by quietly installing scanners the other week without telling me. It set me pondering once more about the Brave New World of total computerization. The scanners aren’t help- ing me. On the contrary, they’re doing their best to rip me off. Since the packets, jars and bottles no longer have price tags, I'm never certain how much they cost until the checkout girl has already rung them up. Psychologically, it’s then too late for a mild-mannered type like myself. 1 can't imagine how the scanners have helped the lads who used to stick the price tags on the goods, because their yobs have now disappeared. Nor have | noticed the remaining staff looking any more relaxed It’s the same story at my bank Last month I finally said the hell with hning up every time behind 20 other customers waiting them turn at one of the three out of seven wickets in operation = | got. my) plastic card, my secret oumber and the brochure telling me how to work the automated teller Now 1 line up behind only 10 other customers waiting to do battle with the machine. But as each tran- saction — even when we get it right first time -- takes ap- proximately twice as long as with a human teller, 1’m po better off. Meanwhile, in- side, the three human tellers are still working their butts off. Clearly, the only = folk whose lives are being made easier and less expensive are the owners of the hardware Not their customers. And not their remaining employees. This, however, doesn't stop the computer promoters from = enthusing about the endless new job opportunities the chip. will open up for the manual totlers it’s busy putting on Ul All the displaced boncheads have to do ts to get themselves retrained for the golden society of the future that runs entirely on integrated circuits VT _S Yip» TATE Noel Wright These social engineers -- who tend to be a little vague on the exact details of the new openings for lucky workers put on the dole by 1BM — are tond of citing the 19th century L.uddites who smashed the spinning machines for fear of unemployment Look, they cry, at the new jobs and LETTER OF THE DAY Miarriage? Think twice! Dear f-ditor An open letter to all men who are contemplating mat niage Did you know *Divorce is now tkely ain $0 pet cent of all marriages? *Under Ball © 100 divorce can obe initiated by onc virtually cause being shown? eThe majorty of divorce suits arc initiated by women? *C ustody of your children will be awarded to your wite 8S per cent of the time? spouse. withboul ®You will be ordered to pay support and of maintenance 95 per cent of the time? *No pre-auptial agreement 1s binding until a judge rulcs so at the ame of the divorcee or any ame after? even if you have no assets. are facing bankruptcy because of your debts, are uncmploycd and on welfare, you will sall be hable to a yan term if. you fail to make support of maintenance payments? *In a reeent case in Van couver a man who had paid his wife a hefty settlement at the tame of his divorce, and had. raised tis” children himself in’ the following years, was ordered to pay $2,000 a month to. his former wife even though they had been divorced for 15 years? *In a recent case back cast a women delidcrately shot her husband dead while he ‘h humans? soaring living standards the Industrial Revolution created. it’s all going to happen again. With due respect | wonder if one of their circuits is malfunctioning. The Industrial Revolution was about goods and ser- vices that humans couldn’t produce without machines. The Computer Revolution is about goods and services that machines can produce without humans. And since the computer is now in- vading every field, its victims are obviously going to have less and less places to turn to, regardless of how often they’re ‘‘retrained’’. After all, tsn’t that the ob- ject of the whole exercise fewer and fewer human be- ings needed anywhere to kecp the show running? The real problem the social engineers should be working on is how to keep human beings running in a totally computerized world Like inventing, for example, an automated bank teller with a pretty smile that asks after’ your health while you're waiting. And spews out grocery moncy from a permancnity empty account was aslecp in his car and was acquitted on the plea of! self-defence? Sentence on appeal: six months! In essence, gentlemen marriage means you have a 50-50 chance of being dead. destitute or in jail if the little woman decides marriage isn’t for her. Do you still think is worth it? P. Nielisen-Kolding Men's Action Committee Vancouver