A6 - Wednesday, September 8, 1982 - North Shore News GE editorial page| Poor watchdog Government regulation of prices keeps them at a reasonable level — right? Wrong, according to a secret Statistics Canada report to the federal cabinet. which recently fell into the hands of the Financial Times. It. showed that, in the year ending April 1982, prices regulated by the various levels of government rose nearly twice as much as unregulated, or “free market”, prices — and by 57% more than the Con- sumer Price Index. Government-controlled prices for a wide range of services, from phone and postal rates to air fares, bus fares, utilities and property taxes, were up 17.7% compared to a 9.1% rise in unregulated prices. The former, moreover, swallow a hefty chunk of our incomes, accounting for nearly one quarter of the total CPI. Most of these regulated prices are levied by monopolies like the post office and the phone companies which leave the public with no alternative suppliers. Being without competition, such monopolies can ignore completely the pricing disciplines imposed by the free market. Government spending itself, of course, also ignores the constraints of the market place — as witness Ottawa’s current and horrendous deficit of $20 billion. Leaving the regulation of monopoly pricing solely to governments, therefore, is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse. The. latest revelation underlines the need for a much stronger role in government price regulation by the consumers who pay the bills. Free-spending bureaucracies clearly lack the attitude needed to be effective watchdogs of the public’s pocketbook. e e Kill it! The latest Gallu Poll reveals that roughly two out of three dians already suppor the government's “six-five per cent” wage restraint program for the public service and even endorse it for the private sector as well. Hopefully, Ottawa has been quick to cancel its multi-million dollar ad campaign to “sell” the program. Not a single cent should be wasted on preaching to the converted. FOeR VONCE OF HONTH ANG WHET VANCOUVER ‘ising 980-0511 a vertising 986-6222 f , € 985-2131 Circulation 986-1337 1139 Lonsdale Ave . North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 Publisher Peter Speck Associate Publisher Robert Graham Editor-in-Chief Advertising Director Noel Wright Tim Francis General Managa:. Administration & Personnel Mrs Berm Hilhard Circulation Director Brian A Fills Production Director Rick Stonehvuuse North Shore Newa, founded in 1069 as an independent community newspaper and qualified under Schedute tl Part i Paragraph MW of the tactse Tan Act ts published cach Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mall Registration Numbe: 3686 Entire contents 1982 North Ghore Free Presse Lid All rights reserved Subscriptionn North and Weat Vancouver $20 pe: year Matting rates available on request No tesponamility accepted for unsotctted maternal is tocting manuee cpte and pr tures witch sancndtd be ac compared ty a stand nGuUronned anvelope VERE OC IRC ULATION 63,096 Wednesday 63 464 Sunday fey sm G&G THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE By W. ROGER WORTH Participatory democracy. That was Pierre Trudeau's clarion call back in the 1960s when he was seeking the country’s top job. Those were the good old days, when unemployment was seldom more than .6 VE TO WONDER AGOUT POE IN THIS COUNTRY... THEY | DDLE AROUND UNTIL THEY GET . “UEMSELVES IN A REAL MESS AND THEN THEY COME Grassroots heat badly needed percent, when double-digit inflation was unthinkable, when interest rates were less than 8 percent and a fill-up at the gas station cost less than $10. It was also a period when government budgets were virtually balanced and the WE CRAWLING TO ME aA SA, WANT. ME THEM! biggest problem facing the nation was getting over a collective hangover following Centennial celebrations and Expo 67. Times have changed, Dramatically. Ottawa will spend about $20 billion more than.it takes in this year, and “the , _Staggéering: $12, 300 for every > ‘working Canadian. -Without: question, + spending by governments sense, grassroots advice that is so badly needed. And the timing is propitious. The legislators are at home on an extended summer vacation. They ail have..local offices and, in many . ‘cases, their home phone:-numbers are listed. They shouldn’t be allowed to only-rélax and enjoy the sun. Their: _telephones should be perpetually ringing, as they are forced to sop up the feelings. of ordinary tax- Mainstream Canada re has gotten out of hand. Even cautious and_ responsible individuals such as former auditor generals claim the country is close to being on its economic knees. Which brings me back to Trudeau's “participatory democracy”, a good idea that was never really ac- cepted, either by the politicians or the public. The point is, Canadians should be participating in the system, and it's par- ticularly important in this, the summer of our discontent. People should be talking to the politicians, giving the legislators the common- ‘paying Canadians about the budget, high interest rates and other concerns. Their mailboxes should be filled with letters and notes from voters. And as they walk down home-town streets, they should be getting an earfull from the people who elect them to office. Who knows, with enough of this “participatory democracy” the politicians might be just a litthe more concerned about the governments’ spendthrift ways. It's certainly worth a try. {W. Roger Worth is a feature writer for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.) Is Canada running out of jobs? WHATEVER happened to the Work Ethic, that simple, sacred yardstick by which our fathers measured all other human virtues rand- You may be surprised to learn that the Work Ethic is still very much alive and well in Canada — and even more surprised to learn that it’s now accused of making our economic troubles worse than ever. That's the message from Harry MacKay of the Canadian Council on Social Development, testifying last week before a_ federal inquiry commission into part-time work. During July, Mr MacKay told the commissioners, 1.3 milhon Canadians worked more than 50 hours a week. “T think they can't ignore the fact their working 50 hours a week its depriving someone of a job opportunity.” he said Mr McKay's” math 1s beyond reproach, of course The average Canadian work week is currently about 38 hours If 1.3 million toilers are cach working |2 ecxtra hours (a total of 15.6 millon hours per week), they are theoretically robbing 411,000 unemployed persons of a 38-hour-a- week yob In other words, the work gluttons are responsible for 29) per cent) of Canada's present uncmployment figure of almost 1 4 milhon If onty they would toe the line and down tools at the proper hour, that figure would be reduced to under one milhon and the jobless rate would be cut from 11 2 pee cent to under cight per cent REAL LIFE All of which goes to show however that ployving with numbers on a calculator doesn't necessarily bear = any relationship to real life Mr. MacKay concedes that many of the 50-hour-a- week brigade are compelled by sheer economic necessity lo moontight or grab overtime, while others in non-union jobs are forced into long hours by em- ployers. His soluuon. o guaranteed annual income program and pocket maximum work hours regulated by law The former. naturally, would have to be paid for by tak Increases — and probably fairly hefty in- creases, at that. The latter would have to be paid for by employers, many of whom, today. are already tectering on the cdge of insolvency Having a willing and capable cm ployee work overtime al time-and-a-half obviously costs less than hiring a second employce to do the same amount of work at full rates, and in many cases is a more efficient way of doing the yob Limiting every worker toa maximum Whour week undercurrent depression conditions would hit small businesses particularly hard incvitably leading to even more closures and focus Noel Wright bankruptcies, and even more jobless Mr. MacKay’s theory that hard and willing workers arc one major cause of our economic woes doesn't hold water The unpalatable truth on which he has touched may. rather. be that a moderna technologi al sociely ts increasingly less able to provide paid jobs for everyone secking them thus to IMBALANCE in the 40-year penod from 1941 to 1981 Canada s population increased by 109 per cent while tts force increased by ] cent Durning the latter 20 years of that penod 1961 work “N per from onward, the imbalance grew even more dramatically. Population rose by 32 per cent (18,328,000 to 24,100,000). The work force soared by 78 per cent (from 6,458,000 to 11,522,000) — notably due to a 155 per cent jump in the number of women centering the labor market. Reduced to the simplest terms, the 1961 labor force comprised 35 per cent of the population. The 1981 labor force stood at 48 per cent of the population Given the enormous amount of human labor that has been replaced = by technology in those two decades -- plus the fact that the baby boom gencration will be around for at least another 30 years — has Canada, along with other industrialized nations, already passed the saturation point as far as paid em- ployment goca? And Wf so, where will jobless individuals find the income to pay for everything industry is now capable of producing without their help’ Scary thoughts, this Labor Day weck. Maybe our whole centuries old concept of money and the way to distribute the fruits of in dustry without destroying individual enterprise and initiative in the process are the reaf problems Mr MacKay and our leaders (wherever they arc) should be attacking Knocking what remains of the Work Ptht that brought us the Mghest standard of living in history docan't even rank asa band aid solution