6 - Sunday, September 23, 1990 -

North Shore News

INSIGHTS

NEWS VIEWPOINT

Public finking

HAT ONCE may have been regarded as ‘‘finking’’ is now con- responsible citizen volvement. Increasingly, law enforcement bureaus and other government agencies are encouraging self-policing among communi- ty residents — and it’s starting to pay off.

Drunk drivers — potential killers — are being pulled off the road by police tipped off by watchful citizens. And as reported in Friday’s News, 233 people have been $1 million worth of drugs seized so far this year as a result of the Crime Stoppers program that follows up leads provided by the public.

Lives could also be saved by a soon-to-

sidered

arrested and over

in-

fighting fer.

be implemented Highway 99 Watch Pro- gram that will have drivers of various cor- porations monitoring other drivers on the notorious Sea-to-Sky Highway and repor- ting unlawful behavior.

Similar tactics are being used in the war against environmental abuse. The provin- cial Motor Vehicle branch follows up on reports of excessive vehicle exhaust, and, in Seattle, the HERO phone line reccives reports of drivers of single-occupsni cars using the carpool lanes.

“I don’t want to get involved’’ attitudes don’t wash anymore. worth living in is a society that’s worth

A society that’s

NEWS QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“Tf people don’t vote for me because I refuse to break the law, then quite frankly 1 don’t want their votes. The position 1 took on the issue is a position that is fun- damental to this country and that is that elected officials do not break the law.”’

West Vancouver school trustee Margot Furk, comnienting on charges that she lost the Socred ‘nomination in West Vancouver- Garibaldi because of her stand on the dual-entry system.

““We require the will and the for-

titude to stop asking the beleaguered taxpayer for more money.””

North Vancouver District Ald. Rick Buchols, on subsidized daycare.

“Yes we can be openly proud of our heritage if we so desire. Some

people don’t because they feel they have to crawi like grey mice and don’t admit that they are German: that's the other side of the coin. You don't have to be the German braggart and you don’t have to be the grey mice. But we should be proud of what Ger- man-Canadians have done over the generations in Canada.”

West Vancouver resident and ace flyer Eckehart Priebe, on im- migration to Canada and German assimilation into Canadian culture.

“This is like training a number of new lifeguards and then closing the pool.”

Christine Colbow, principal of the German North Shore School and president of the Association of B.C. German Language Schools, commenting on Ottawa’s decision to open a heritage lan-

THE VOICE OF NORTH ANG WEST VANCOUVER

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guage institute in Edmontor at a cost of $6.5 million while cutting $4 million in funding for heritage language classes.

“Apparently they were saying, ‘the old Lynn Valley is back.’ °’

Community youth worker Craig Johnston, on the rise in violence in Lynn Valley.

“In the old days it used to be a fight in the back alley, one-on- one. Now it’s 10-on-10. And all of a sudden somebody starts bringing baseball bats and then the other people bring bats. Then they start bringing iron bars. They haven't brought guns yet, but it’s com- ing.”’

North Vancouver RCMP Insp. Dave Roseberry, on the use of Mace and other weapons in North Shore street violence.

980-0511

Publisher ........... Peter Speck Managing Editor Timothy Renshaw Associate Editor... .. Noel Wright Advertising Director . Linda Stewart

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the

at-cat 1980s

YOU’VE HEARD it, I’m sure, and will hear it again. Mil- lion-a-year Yuppies and unsorted garbage are out. The “gentler society’’ and old growth trees are in.

That's the basic theme of a new book now making waves below the border — but much in it is relevant to Canada, too.

The somewhat unlikely author of The Politics of Rich and Poor (available at Duthies downtown) is political analyst Kevin Phillips. “Unlikely’” because of his solidly right-wing background.

A Harvard Law graduate, he worked on Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign and was a special assis- tant to Attorney General John Pbfitchell. Back in 1969 he astutely predicted the switch of lower- income voters to the Republicans which put both Nixon and Reagan in the White House.

But latterly the editor-publisher of American Political Report and Business & Public Affairs, has becoming growingly critical of the widening gap between rich and poor caused by Republican eco- nomic policies in the booming 1980s.

He blames it squarely on a dramatic drop in tax rates for the wealthy under Reagan, from a top tate of 76 per cent to 28 per cent. At the same time corporate taxes — 12.5 per cent of total revenue in 1980 — fell to 6.2 per cent three years later. As a result, per- sonal wealth among the already wealthy, including top corporate bosses, soared.

From 1981 to 1988 — while workers hardly kept pace with in- flation — the net worth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans trebled. Thirty years ago mil- lionaires totalled less than 100,000. By 1988 the U.S. had 100,000 people with a net worth of more than $10 million. The one per cent of Americans with eight per cent of all income in 1980 now receive !2 per cent.

Back in our own country, a study of Statistics Canada figures published earlier this year showed that about $1 in every $4 of cor- porate profits go untaxed — and that in 1987 over 93,000 corpora- tions with profits totalling over $27 billion paid NO federal! in- come tax at all, thanks to tax loopholes and subsidies.

Another StatsCan analysis revealed that, between 1950 and 1988, personal taxpayers’ share of revenue rose from 37 per cent to 47 per cent, while the corporate share fell from 37 per cent to nine per cent.

Too many unemployed, disap- pearing middle manager jobs and home ownership out of reach for many will now — Phillips pro- phesies — bring an inevitable backlash against the fat-cat ex- cesses of the free market in the 80s. Politically, a downward redistribution of income (shades

>, 60 YEARS later ... West Van's Nan and Cy Champion.

Noel Wright

the Reagan . Aftermath :

of Roosevelt’s New Deal?). More conservationism. More corporate responsibility. Less adulation of entrepreneurs. ‘‘The 1990s will not be fashionable for business,”” he warns.

Had the author been Ed Broadbent or Dave Barrett, the book might be just one more NDP tract. Coming froma former Republican guru — still a conservative, but now conceding a need for government intervention — it’s quite another thing.

Is it mere coincidence that On- tario before Bob Rae was Canada’s closest replica of Reagan’s America?

eke WRAP-UP: | choke at saying anything good about Gouging & Screwing — but why are car dealers urging me to ‘‘Buy Now and Avoid the GST?”” We're told new cars are among the few goods that should be a little CHEAPER (about three per cent) when the seven per cent GST replaces the present hidden 13.5 per cent Manufacturers Sales Tax ... Time- ly topic by guest speaker Chris Arnett at next Thursday’s (Sept. 27) meeting of West Van Histori- cal Society — 7 p.m. in Cedardale Centre, 595 Burley — will be “Indian History of the West Van- couver Area’’ ... From the Better Late Dept., c s.grats to West Van’s Cy ana Nan Champion who joined the ‘‘Diamond 60th Club” Thursday, Sept. 20 ... Tomorrow, Sept. 24, birthday greetings to West Van’s Peter Wardell ... And many happy returns of Tuesday, Sept. 25, to North Van's Watly Mulligan.

tee WRIGHT OR WRONG: Nothing but sunshine sometimes results in a desert.