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Cable bill offers no real protection
Consumers, when confronted
with choosing between a monopoly
and a regulated monopoly, invari
ably choose the latter, which ex
plains the popularity of the Cable
Consumer Protection Act recently
assed over the veto of President
ush. While a regulated monopoly
is preferable to an unregulated
monopoly, another option, competi
tion, has been largely ignored.
The cable bill as passed contains
many flaws. Cities already receive
valuable franchise fees of up to five
percent of cable companies' total
revenues. This bill gives cities the
power to regulate cable rates, but
only as long as cable companies re
main monopolies.
The bill mandates regulation of
only basic cable rates — in Bryan-
College Station, channels two
through 13. These are the no-frills
broadcast and public-access chan
nels to which few people subscribe
anyway. To advertise this bill as
some kind of panacea for high rates
is ridiculous; it safeguards the prof
its of the existing monopolies and
providers cosumers with little.
Competition works. It drives
down prices and encourages better
service. And competition can work
in the cable industry. Surveys of ar
eas with rival cable providers
showed rates 20 percent lower than
those with monopoly carriers.
A pro-consumer, pro-competition
bill is badly needed. It would allow
phone companies to provide cable
services, open access to satellite pro
gramming, and prevent cities from
issuing rstricted franchises. The ca
ble bill in its present state serves the
election-year interests of the Con
gressmen who supported it more
than the voters who will supposed
ly benefit from it.
Last thirig America needs now
is another 'New Deal' delusion
ANTHONY C.
LOBAIDO
Columnist
It seems that
everyone from
the Socialist Par
ty of America to
Gov. Bill Clinton
is calling for an
other "New
Deal" as the
panacea for
America's eco
nomic and social
ills. Before at
tempting to tra
verse such a
path, it would be
prudent to exam
ine the results of
the New Deal of
the 1930s. It is a bizarre tale which
few people, including many university
economics professors, know about
even today.
In the wake of the stock market
crash of 1929, America was ushered
into the era known as "The Great De
pression." Yet in the early 1930s
America had great industrial capacity,
fertile farmland, skilled and willing
workers, good farmers, a vast commu
nications infrastructure of telephones,
teletype, radio and mail, no war in its
cities or countrysides, no pestilence
and no famine.
Without federal intervention, the ef
fects of the 1929 crash would have
righted themselves within the frame
work of the free market. However,
banks, which were the only source of
new money and credit, refused loans
for industries, stores and farms. Pay
ments, though, continued, and money
began to disappear. The greedy
bankers were thus able to gain control
over vast amounts of private property
and other securities.
In an effort to end the depression.
President Franklin Roosevelt chose to
adopt the Keynesian economic theory
of governmental economic interven
tion. The "WPA" or "Works Progress
Administration" of the New Deal was
launched, which supposedly put mil
lions to work and saved capitalism.
The facts, however, show that 13 mil
lion Americans were unemployed in
1933 and by 1941 that figure had only
dropped to 11 million. Without World
War II, horrendous unemployment
Would have continued.
The painful truth is that for every
Worker the government put to work, it
displaced another worker in the pri
vate sector. The gaping hole in Keyne
sian economics is that the government
has no money except the money of its
citizens; therefore it can never ao any
thing for the people that they cannot
do better for themselves.
>t>(
notion that you could create wealth by
digging a hole and filling it up again
with the same dirt. This idea of the
government giving people gifts out of
their own wealth was first tried by
Pericles, and spelled doom for Atheni
an democracy.
But FDR was on a roll. In order to
attack the "farm problem," the Presi
dent ordered the price of corn (which
was barely selling at 10 cents per
bushel) be raised to 50 cents per
bushel. Farmers were ordered to plow
under their corn crop without harvest
ing, kill their pigs and dump boat
loads of potatoes into the ocean. Keep
in mind, this was done at a time when
there was real hunger in America.
Thus, FDR launched the communist-
oriented, centrally commanded agri
cultural economy which has pushed
the modern American farmer to the
edge of extinction.
On March 6, 1933, FDR called a
bank holiday. The President then or
dered the revaluation of gold from $20
per ounce to $35 per ounce. With one
stroke of the pen, FDR had "stolen"
$200 billion from the American public
as life insurance and pensions were
suddenly and grossly devalued.
In 1934, Congress passed the Gold
Reserve Act. The government stopped
minting gold coins, and persons could
no longer hold gold money. Yet few
Americans realized the foolishness of
placing their wealth in worthless
pieces of paper called dollars, which
were under inflationary attack.
With the onset of World War II,
banks, which only months before had
no money to lend for houses, food and
clothing during peacetime, suddenly
had unlimited billions for Army bar
racks, K-rations, uniforms and bombs.
With an increase in the money supply,
people were hired, factories began two
shifts and farmers sold their produce.
Clearly, a lack of money brought on
the depression and an adequate mon
ey supply ended it.
An elementary analysis of the poli
cies and effects of FDR's New Deal
should be enough to provide 1992
America with valuable lessons in deal
ing with the desire for a "Second New
Deal." Wealth creates wealth, which
explains why the rich continue to
grow richer. Clearly, the best way to
nave things is to produce them. Nev-
erthless, today's neo-Socialists contin
ue to tell America that you can do less
and less and receive more and more.
Another New Deal? No way.
LoBaido is a doctoral student
The Battalion
Page 9
Helpful on-campus travel ideas
Traffic congestion problems miraculously solved
I f you rode your bicycle within the
past few weeks of school — and
rode it on a non-bicycle-lane sur
face, you probably rode into the
painted-toenail-sporting Birken-
stocks of a snarling mass of profani
ty-screaming estrogen, namely my
self.
And if you just ran the "Sprawl
ing College Station Marathon" from
your freshly parked car in the fish lot
to your class in Zachary (where the
prof counts off for tardies), you prob
ably passed a heaving mass of back
pack-toting, PTTS-cursing columnist;
that would be me.
And if you walked across campus
during the past few weeks of school — and stepped into
the path of an oncoming small, white, foreign car, driven
by yours truly, you probably heard a pleasant stream of
colorful four-letter words intertwined with the mellifluous
melody of screeching tires, and you probably pissed me off.
The Student Senate recently announced its next meeting
date (Oct. 14) and encouraged all of us to contact our sena
tors and voice our opinions — not that I know who my sen
ator is, or even care. I do have an opinion, and it is the so
lution to all of our campus traffic needs. In fact, I have
three opinions, three suggestions, three great ideas for the
Student Senate to snatch right up and implement, proving
to all of us that they actually do something other than pad
their resumes.
So here it is, in small words and big type so everyone
can understand: "Stacy's Quick and Handy Traffic Tips for
a Trouble Free University."
First, the Student Senate passes the "Bag a Biker for Sta
cy" rule. The University requires all students to wield
spoke-proof pencils at all times. In the event that some
scum-sucking bicyclist neglects to use the bicycle lanes that
we gave up parking spaces for, all walking students are au
thorized to jam those pencils into the spokes of that bicycle
wheel and then laugh hysterically as the foolhardy cyclist
eats concrete! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Secondly, PTTS accedes to the demands of parking
place-hungry students and provides "All-Play Parking
Day." Once a semester, all PTTS officers remain at home
with their little black boxes of electronic death, and every
one parks everywhere! Students cruise up to the doors of
their classrooms! People park on President Mobley's lawn!
There will be no more mad dashes across campus to class,
because we can DRIVE there! Go all-terrain! Go off-road!
Go crazy, kids, because you won't be ticketed! (MSC grass
and Kyle Field are, of course, excluded).
Finally, the Student Senate implements the weekly
"Don't Yield to Pedestrians Day." One day a week, the
University waives all rules for proper car conduct with re
gard to pedestrians. If they step in front of your car, you
can mow them down! All crossing lanes, which are basical
ly worthless anyway, become target ranges for your blood
thirsty hood ornaments. Kill! Kill! Kill! Maim! Maim!
Maim! Suddenly pedestrians think twice — or even three
times — before they try to dart across the street in front of
the Bus Stop Snack Bar. Suddenly, walking becomes a con
tact sport! Suddenly the fly-splats on our windshields
merge with the terror-stricken eyeballs of once-cocky
pedestrians! Suddenly the Student Senate grants valuable
cash prizes and merchandise for the best roadkill! And
don't think that rollerbladers are excluded — the next one
who zips out in front of your car can become instant "roll-
kill"! Let's take back the sidewalks for the drivers who re
ally need them!
Call your student senators now! Tell them that you
support these plans for a worry-free campus! Assert your
rights as members of the student body — so we can start
the body count today! And stay out of my way, pal, be
cause I ain't slowin' down for no one.
You heard it here first.
Feducia is a senior English and history major
STACY
FEDUCIA
Assistant editor
go Y SCOUT KUOT-TrifJ&
-SHOW AbtO TELL —
Hotels here for profit,
not charity to Aggies
In response to the Battalion editorial
board's misconceptions about "good
old supply and demand capitalism":
Quite simply, profit margin does define
good business. Local hotels may owe
their existence to the University, but the
owners have no obligation to provide
rooms at below market value. They
could have easily taken their invest
ment dollars elsewhere, but these hotels
were built because there was a market
niche here. Now the owners are seek
ing the maximum return on their in
vestment. Nobody ever built a hotel
here to provide a cheap place for a foot
ball fan to crash for a night. Lower
rates would be charitable but the result
would be an abysmal shortage of rooms
on football weekends (and a corre
sponding drop in football attendance).
If you expect charity from hotels then
you should not expect as many hotels
in this area. Alternatively, if the hotels
were actually charging too much and
rolling in their "inflated profits" they
would be quickly undercut by invading
entrepreneurs. As your editorial ad
mits, Bryan/College Station is not a
tourist mecca, and you do not need a
master's degree in business administra
tion to estimate what a local hotel's
profit margin is from January through
August. So the hotels' increased cash
flow during a few special events merely
offsets the dismal profits (losses) expe
rienced throughout the majority of the
year.
Steve Chesley '86
graduate student
Let those nasty, lazy
poor people eat cake
Howdy, fellas! I am writing in re
sponse to David Dollinger's letter of
Oct. 2. I totally agree with his view
point and would like to add a couple of
words of my own. I myself have re
fused to receive financial aid because I
have pride in myself. I believe in that
"old pioneer spirit." Although I come
from an extremely poor single parent
family, I am proud of the fact that I am
working my way through college sell
ing tamales. Even though my mother
taught me how to make those greasy
tamales, I am ashamed of her! She has
never tried to learn English or attempt
ed to get herself a real job to support
my 12 brothers and sisters in a more
civilized manner. I tell her to have
pride and confidence in herself and not
to rely on any governmental English
teaching program or, heaven forbid,
welfare. I am sickened by all these
filthy-lazy-poor people who blame the
economy for racial tension, robberies,
drugs, AIDS, and single motherhood. I
believe it is a personal disease resulting
from the deterioration of family values.
We should worry more about inter
national relations. Now, those hard
working people in the East deserve
some of the jobs these filthy-lazy-poor
people do not want.
I, too, consider myself a real Chris
tian like David and also feel that I have
not suffered enough to receive financial
aid or, heaven forbid, welfare. So Ag
gies, a word of advice — in this coming
election I suggest you investigate the
facts and make a rational choice ... Viva
Bush!!!
Jose Enrique Morales Ibarra
Class of '93
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