The economic reply
Page 2
THE BATTALIC
THURSDAY, OCTOBERJI,!
Economy beyond Senator
By MIKE PERRIN
Lloyd Bentsen is a friendly, warm
Senator from Texas; however, he
can’t or won’t help the economy if
elected as President of the United
States.
Senator Bentsen spoke Tuesday
in the Rudder Center Theatre on
the economy. During the question
and answer period, it became evi
dent that Bentsen does not seem to
be aware of what the problem is
with our economy—government
spending.
Inflation is caused by government
spending which is not paid for in tax
revenue. Selling bonds and just
printing more money are the other
two ways our government can get
money. Both of these alternatives
are inflationary. When more and
more bonds (Treasury notes) are
sold, a better and better rate of in
terest must be offered to attract
buyers; among private firms, this is
fine. The firms will quit selling
when their rate of return equals the
interest offered on their bonds.
Otherwise they go out of business.
But there is little or no restraint
on the rate offered by the govern
ment. Since they don’t have a rate of
return, they can sell until they get
all the money they want. This drives
investment money away from the
private sector and raises interest
rates which in turn puts pressure on
long-term costs and thus prices.
Merely printing more money is
inflationary because there is now
more money per good in the
economy; hence, prices rise.
Tax revenues are not inflationary
because they neither increase the
amount of currency in the system,
nor do they affect the interest rate.
They are unpopular because the
taxpayers are then directly paying
the full amount that the government
is spending.
When Bentsen proposes in
creased education spending, in
creased agriculture spending and
increased mass transit spending, he
contributes to inflationary pres
sures.
In return for all this increased
spending, he offers cuts in foreign
aid, reduced regulation of the
transportation industry and cutting
some multinational firm tax breaks.
This mixed bag of proposals will
probably leave us about where we
are now in terms of overall spending
and deficit.
But there are other areas where
he seeks to introduce distortion in
the marketplace, such as limiting oil
imports. All that this will accomp
lish is higher oil prices in this coun
try by cutting down on the available
supply. Domestic oil companies
should love this proposal, since they
would no longer have to compete
with foreign oil interests. The con
sumer is the loser.
Mandatory good mileage for cars
is also a mistake; the people with
poor mileage cars already pay more
for fuel, so they have incentive to
find other modes of transportation.
All that mandatory rules and regula
tions lead to is inflexibly higher
prices, as witness the pollution con
trols, seatbelt provisions, and colli
sion equipment on existing autos.
If consumers want those things,
they can get them as options. Saving
money on gas is offset by increased
expenditure for automobiles.
Tougher mandatory house insula
tion standards have the same effect
on house prices—they get higher.
In short, a voluntary program is al
ways better than a mandatory one
because it allows each individual to
decide for himself what he wants to
do. Each will do what he perceives
is best for himself. With each person
in his best-off position, society is in
its best-off position.
Programs which originate from
the bottom up are more reflective of
a society’s desires than one which
operates from the top down. It’s too
bad politicians in general and Lloyd
Bentsen in particular don’t under
stand this. Of course, if they did,
they couldn’t be politicians.
Note to Klemcke, Schraub, Lamm
and Herring (Listen Up): Since no
analysis was offered in rebuttal of
my contentions about the MSC, it is
evident that you either did not un
derstand it or just felt like “blowing
off steam.”
Slouch
Jim Earle
Let's Re-elect
JAMES
STATE TREASURER
HIS PROVEN RECORD
MERITS YOUR VOTE AND SUPPORT
During the past 12 Months
JAMES
STATE TREASURER
Earned Interest on State Deposits in over
1200 Texas banks S
51,673,752.19
Collected cigarette tax 242,366,191.70
Earned interest and dividends processed
and collected in Bond Division 260,525,502.76
4. Escheat & other taxes
Total major direct collections (Treas.
2.603,672.39
Dept.) $557(169,1W
Town 1
fcond Sp
.rings Ra>
[ay at 8 p
I.
Any stu
ard can
enter, in
Building-
The nu
JESSE JAMES
STATE TREASURER
LET S VOTE FOR AND
RE-ELECT JESSE JAMES STATE TREASURER
Pol Adv Paid tor by Jesse James Box 12404 Capitol Sta Austin, Texas 78711
Beverley Braley Tours, Travel
Traveling GHRLSTM^S...
Holiday Group Space
NEW YORK
departures December 20 & 21
MIAMI
departure December 20
“Would you run over that part about your ride leaving early; I
thought it was a home game!”
Listen up
Batt attacked
Editor:
In response to Mike Perrin’s arti
cle , “MSC Fund Builds Apathy.’
Next time he writes an article I
hope he will try to get at least a few
statements correct.
The guaranteed income he spoke
about is rewarded each year only if
the committees show they can put
bn programs the student body
'would want to see. If the commit
tees’ programs don’t generate at
tendance the committee is discon-
tinued.
don’t perceive themselves as a re
straining device but as a device to
help the committees with any prob
lems. The MSC Council is a pool of
knowledge on what to do if a com
mittee has a problem at any time.
The Council Assistants are not
necessarily “groomed” to replace
the. MSC Council. They receive
valuable knowledge while in that
position and many eventually hold
leadership positions in organiza
tions like the MSC Council and Di
rectorate or Student Government.
If they happen to become MSC
Council members it is because they
were more qualified for the office
than others who ran.
The MSC Council and Directo
rate does care about whafis prog
rammed because they care about
the student body and their desires.
This is more than Perrin cares
about. He was the chairman of the
how defunct Public Relations
Committee until his position was
made a Council position. He could
have applied for it and if accepted he
could have cdnstructively changed
anything he didn’t like. Instead .he
sits in the Battalion Office and
writes articles without even seeing
if what he writes is true.
As a constructive aide for the Bat
talion Staff: If you continue to allow
Perrin to write articles a position
should be created for him. The most
appropriate position, I believe, is
Husband of the Managing Editor.
Kyle Klemcke
Free U Chairman
Phillip Schraub
Dance Chairman
Joe Lamm,
Camera Chairman
Larry Herring
Outdoor Recreation
Work shown
Editor: »
Tom Dawsey^s ‘quick check’’
with the vice-presidents of various
committees was “perhaps a bit too
quick.
He misled the fact that I’m a vot
ing member of both the Menu
Board and the Laundry Committed.
And since, as Dawsey. put it, “al
most all productive work done by
governmental structures is done
behind the scenes in committee (not
senate) meetings, ” I feel as though I
am involved with student affairs.
Again, I state that the Student
Senate of Texas A&M is ineffective.
It has little real power of any kind.
For this reason, 1 resign from the
Senate but ask that I be allowed to
stay in my respective committees..
Robin Coppedge
Ex-Senator of Walton, Milner &
Hotard
Che Battalion
PFANUTS
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Tuesday, November 5, 1974 8 pm
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