__ Page 6, September6, 1978 - North Shore News _

The <

‘conversation with ‘my , nephew’?

inflation in a recent column sparked an’ unusual

number of comments and queries. from ‘people in widely different financial situations -- almost all of - - them expressing alarm about the speed with which ‘the invisible monster is gobbling up their dollars. — ‘But. one reader had ae different: angle on: the.

matter. “Aren't. we. ‘making too.

much ‘fuss about. inflation,” 7 he asks. “Prices are rising, and salaries. If !mow earn $450 a week compared to $300. a few years back, what does it: ‘matter if a ‘pound of sirloin | steak goes up from $2 to $3- in the same. ‘period? Surely it

but so are wages

all comes to the : same > in’ the end. ”

~

our optimistic reader is right. For the moment a lot

of working citizens are not. being hurt at all by the =.

weeks. :

4 dozen. ‘Canadian beer: = $4. 64, 43.4 minutes (19780; . M. 00, 49. 7 minutes (1975).

"Even with the 1 two. biggest

: purchases the | average wage- - -earner ever makes -- the car -_ and the family. home - the story was the.same.

In 1978,-for. a oe two-

door sedan costing $6,178, . +. the $301-a-week man or

It's a tempting argument -

and up toa point, of course, .

woman : had: to .work 26.78.

-weeks.- The corresponding -work-time neéded to buy the _ equivalent car in 1975 ata

price of. $4, 808 was 27.6.

- government's printing-press |. &

money. In fact, in the case‘of .

quite a number of com

modities they can be shown ~ to be actually better off bra :

a number of years ago.

I'm thinking of those cost- :

of-living tables that show the. [

time a person has to work, —

on a given wage or salary, in

order to earn the price ofa ft given item. For example, the. “E

average weekly wage -

Vancouver in April 1978 wail . oo a $301 before taxes and and = “APA UNAS LG looms UIC-CPP deductions,or $231 °°

‘net — as against $224, ($174 net )in'1975 ---and over the |

‘same three-year span the

. cost of practically everything -

a normal person needs also rose, sometimes steeply.

Yet. our average 1978 wage-earner had to work only 8.43 minutes for a gallon of 90-cent regular gasoline, Compared to the

9.3 minutes he worked for a

gallon of 75-cent gasoline back in 1975.

A few other examples hammer home =§the same point:

One dozen grade A large eggs: 97 cents, 9.1 minutes (1978); 91 cents, minutes (1975).

1 Ib sirloin steak: $2.69, 25.2 minutes (1978); $2.68, 33.3 minutes (1975).

1 Here of 2% ‘milk: 58 cents, 5.4 minutes (1978);55 cents, 6.8 minutes (1975). |

~ 1 tb of butter: $1.34, 12.5 minutes (1978); minutes (1975).

Downtown movie: $3.75 35.1 minutes (1978); $3.50, 43.5 minutes (1975).

Cigarettes, carton of 200: $6.39, 59.8 minutes (1978); - $5.69, 70.7 minutes (1975).

11.3

$1.13, 14 ©

i978 p

of a single-family | house was.

$66,263,

A few things | are ad- mittedly dearer even on the.

above work-time basis --

-among them postage stamps, coffee (up by 135%) and, for.

some curious reason, men’s

heavy woolen socks. In the main, however, -our op-

. timistic reader makes his.

small point ... as far as it

goes. | ‘HAPPY MINORITY If’ you have full-time

employment in a job where. the pay automatically keeps pace, or better, with living costs -- as in the case of most of the 27-28% of the work force which is unionized -- current inflation isn’t going to hurt you one little bit on a

_ day-to-day basis:

But it’s already hurting a very large number of other

people badly and, if it

continues unchecked, it can eventually spell disaster even for today’s. happy minority of top wage-earners who now work six minutes

less for a case of beer than.

they did three years ago.

‘about |

“li Yancouver the z average.

for _

‘which you would ‘have to

-work 5.52 years. Fbree years |

earlier the same hotse cost

~ $57,765 and. ate up “6.38 years of net income.

“by! working — cand. must f.- struggle. to. get. by on fF -, S inadequate fixed j pensions or su N D AYS ~ other handouts senior citizens, the. ‘unemployed,

7 thes sick and handicapped.

T's’ “hurting | ‘padly ‘hun oo dreds. of. thousands of em-.— | _-'ployees in the: non-unionized | 60% of the work force who ff. - _-@arn. only. the legal. minimum . |.

. wage, or. close to. it--andit’s . }- hurting’ many | of their small: | ‘too, ff. ~ who. have | no way of mat- -{- ching the inflationary wage ~levels

business employers, _

t's Ss. “hurting badly. those _ : who cannot: earn an income |

4 0

~ successfully .[- 1 100 h - demanded * of large com- | 7 ‘panies by the unions. mae |

Inflation is hurting: the’ | vave o $2 en economy asa whole in many {. ways. By: eating into com- 4 { _ pany: profits it reduces the | ‘ capital available for in-.

| BONANZA SALE CONTINUES

— OPEN

“THIS SALE ENDS SEPT. 4 Oo!

We want your | business: - eCheck and compare our prices and quality | -eYou will find all those hard to find colours in our |. on carpet line, ceramic tile, wallpaper and paint supplies, oe 8 °P. Ss. Don 't forget our free installation clinics. ae

. Beginning Sept. 7 7: 30-9

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vestment in. new plantand | @ "7. ,

| _ new projects which would | fee z create more jobs. a

ia DESTROYING FREEDOM 7

“f .- By driving up the price of — _@.. exports. inflation | loses us a. vital. 7. produces for the country a ff

| trade deficit. As a result, the a 2 foreign exchange value of f° ff. -the © dollar

a porarily, —

foreign sales and.

drops. Tem-

of course,

‘the. ‘price - . of

further

Worst of . all,

prodigal and enormously

inefficient. machine called

‘government’ -- and forced to throw ourselves on its mercy

for many of the needs we >

ought to. be looking after ourselves.

Optimism — is fine and we

can use lots- of it at the present time. But the head- in-sand act of the ostrich

won't help at all in solving

current problems. Despite the happy warriors like our

reader, who are temporarily .

“keeping pace”, today’s inflation -- already well past the creeping stage -- is Enemy Number One.

Ten per cent inflation, if not speedily checked, is inflation getting ready to break into a run. And runaway inflation can not only destroy the government that fuels it. Ultimately it can destroy society itself.

Pickets stall terminal —

The havbors board offered over the weekend to meet with the unior, on the basis thar the union would be prepared to be flexible in its demands.

A board spokesman said: ‘The union, however, is not prepared to depart from its position, which has not

changed on the basic issues since negotiations started several months ago.”’

At News press time there were no further mectings scheduled beiween the board and the union.

Pickcting began on a less in,ense scale last week au

NHB offices with the resuh shai documentation could not be carried out for incoming cargo.

Loads were diverted 10 oher B.C. ports and to Seaule but exporting was s.ill carried out as documen-

a.ion was not required by NHB s:aff.

TBonus: | price with purchase pee vee or more |

this. | . helps. exports, but it also |

boosts everything we import - | ‘pushing living costs. still 4 higher and giving upward. nudge to _ wage demands.

inflation §. destroys personal savings ~ -and the individual freedom ‘they should bring. Instead, [ : _we are compelled to pay | BOonNnUS: ever higher taxes to the | | underlay

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