USA Disaster Area; W.A. Paton

There has been quite a change since Cleveland's day. The "prevDr. Paton is Professor Emeritus of Accounting and of Economics, University of Michigan, and is known throughout the world for his outstand ing work in these fields. His current comments on American attitudes and behavior are worthy of everyone's attention. 16 alent tendency" that he observed has grown from a trickle to a tor rent. Turning to Uncle Sam for help in meeting local emergencies and difficulties has become stand ard practice. A few years ago there were complaints among ap ple growers in one of the states regarding prices anq marketing methods, and the gov~or .of the state promptly hopped on a plane and flew to Washington to seek assistance. That same season a couple of other governors made the trek, with plenty of publicity, to ask for aid to relieve the dis tress caused by local crop failures. But such journeys, apparently, are no longer required. All that is necessary today is to telephone the bad news to the White House and the President himself will fly over the floods, the dry fields, the frost.;bitten orange groves, the 1966 U.S.A. - DISASTER AREA 17 forest fire, the tornado's path, or other trouble spot, and on the basis of this high-level and high speed inspection decide upon the appropriate relief program.

The Habit Acquired The habit of begging rides on the Federal gravy train is easily acquired, especially when the Boss Man and his crew are eager to attract passengers. Last summer the current governor of the state that had the apple troubles earlier proposed that some twenty coun ties, which had had no substantial rainfall for four or five weeks, be designated as disaster areas. A person driving around the state at that time would have had trou ble picking out the afflicted coun ties making up the governor's list. And undoubtedly an investigator could have found many people in almost every community through out the state - and especially in the towns where governmental water departments, not noted for good management, had prohibited sprinkling of lawns and gardens who were complaining about the dry weather. (A careful observer might have noticed, too, that Sol & Co. don't pay much attention to county lines in providing or withholding precipitation.) Shortly after the governor's an nouncement, as it happened, there were hea vy rains almost everywhere, and before long there was considerable grumbling about the "unusual" wet weather, and re sulting troubles encountered in harvesting and other outdoor op erations. There was little or no critical comment, however, re garding the governor's efforts an indication of the extent to which we are all becoming ac customed to the idea of relying on Washington to bail us out of dif ficulties, both ordinary and extra ordinary.

Adverse Weather Anyone who has lived in the U.S.A. for long, done the usual amount of domestic traveling, and kept up with the news about me teorological conditions, is well aware of the fact that in most sec tions of the country the weather is highly variable, seasonally and within seasons. He knows that there are drouths, hurricanes, floods, freezes, and other unpleas ant happenings somewhere every year (which is not to deny that some years are worse than others). He also knows that no where are ideal conditions to be found, for any considerable peri.,. od, and that there is no possible weather formula for an area that will satisfy everybody, continu ously. In other words, adverse weather is a commonplace, one of the fac18 THE FREEMAN Febnta1~1/ tors that makes life still a bit rugged, despite the marvelous im provements in housing, transpor tation, construction equipment, ag ricultural methods, and so on. And if a spell of unfavorable weather provides justification for the label "disaster area," it would seem reasonable to describe the entire U.S.A. as such an area and be done with it, instead of employ ing piecemeal procedure.

To Get One1s Share One thing we can be quite sure of: Before long it will become very apparent to the residents of counties and communities that have been left out of a regional relief program that they are get ting shortchanged with respect to the outflow of Federal funds, and that they must make an effort to qualify for a cut. In most cases it will not be difficult to find local troubles and problems that will suffice to put the area on the needy list, especially in view of the present tendency to welcome new clients for Federal handouts. It is not necessary to look very far ahead, moreover, to see a situ ation in which the rare community which wants to be independent, which would like to take care of its own emergencies, which has a citizenry that believes that local problems should be solved locally, by those directly concerned, will find itself regarded as a maverick if not a menace by the Federal octopus, and will be pressured vigorously and unrelentingly to get in line. Indeed, this state of affairs is already in evidence in the handling of Federal aid to education and some of the other programs, both minor and mas sive. And while major cities such as Chicago, with considerable political influence, may offer some resistance to discriminatory pres sures, the smaller communities will generally feel obliged to knuckle under promptly, without serious protest.

Everyone Pays It is amazing, but quite appar ent, that many of us are unwilling to face up to the plain fact that it is the taxpayers of the country (and that means nearly everybody, when all forms of tax levies, direct and indirect, are taken into account) who foot the bill for governmental handouts, of every kind and description. Where there is awareness of this fact, more over, there is a widespread ten dency to forget that the process of assessing and collecting taxes, to provide the money for Big Brother to spend in our behalf, plus the development and opera tion of an administrative and dis bursing apparatus, heavily manned, means that the return 1966 U.S.A. - DISASTER AREA 19 "relief" flow to states, localities, and specific families and. individ uals, is a much reduced stream. In short, the cost of taking our money away from us and spending it for us is very substantial. Another common misunder standing is found in the view that some states or regions get back more than the Federal take from such states or regions. Of course, levies on taxpayers generally can bring a net gain to a strictly lim ited list of localities or groups, with low taxpaying power. But with relief and aid programs wide ly applicable as they are now, on a tremendous scale, and keeping in mind the cost of such programs and the broad impact of .present day tax burdens, it can hardly be expected that any region of sub stantial size will recover 100 per cent of its contributions to the programs.

Statistical demonstration of this state of affairs is somewhat diffi cult, but such data and estimates as are available indicate that none of the fifty states gets back more than the outgoing amount. It is fairly obvious that no kind of tax handout program can improve the lot of all of us. The formula of from-everybody-to-everybody has never been made to work. It is literally impossible, of course, to improve the per-capita standard of living without per-capita improvement in economic effort and performance. Trying to accom plish this by governmental redis tribution programs is just as fu tile as trying to lift ourselves up by tugging at our bootstraps. Coercive Powers Lack Magic At times many Americans evi dence an ,almost mystic faith in the ability of government agencies to cure all our ills. They forget that government is nothing more than people, operating with coer cive powers either seized in one way or another or granted and sanctioned, more or less com pletely, by the citizenry. These people have no Aladdin's lamps or other magic tools, as should be very apparent to anyone who has had the opportunity to observe closely either local or central gov ernment in action. At the best, government consists of some con scientious and capable persons try ing hard to accomplish certain specified and limited chores that have been delegated to them; at the worst, government consists of one or more racketeers and ty rants interested largely in living high from the efforts of their subjects, and in maintaining them selves in power. And even a quick look at what we know of human history makes it very plain that keeping those inclined to dicta tor ..

ship and exploitation from climb20 THE FREEMAN February ing on the White Horse seems to be well-nigh impossible - for any considerable period. The R.eal Disaster This brings me, finally, to the main point. The justification for referring to the entire U.S.A. as a "disaster area" is not to be found in regional variations and difficulties, nor in aid and handout programs as such. The disaster that has befallen us is the change in attitudes. The decline in will ingness to assume responsibility and take the initiative, at individ ual and family levels; the increas ing feeling of helplessness and accompanying eagerness to cast our burdens on the state; the fail ure to remember - despite the American experience of which the astonishing results are still right before our eyes - that the road to prosperity for all is a climate that encourages the talented, the innovators, the enterprisers, and thus produces a surge of creative energy and drive that stimulates even the laggards to try to hang on to the fast-moving coattails of the hustlers: these are the changes that have brought us to the very brink. And there are few signs on the horizon that we will wake up in time to avoid going over the cliff into full-fledged socialism.

Just a few years ago "ham-and eggs" Townsend of California failed to get even a respectful hearing when he appeared before a Congressional committee to urge his modest program of help for the old folks. If he were to return to our midst now, he couldn't be lieve his eyes or ears. ~ Reprints available, 3, each. Persons and Groups IT IS MAINLY when persons combine into mobs and other militant pressure groups that tolerance and an instinctive respect for others are lost in an illogical and mad attempt to force peaceful individuals and minorities to conform to the viewpoints and prejudices of the herd. When this happens, love and charity and respect for one's fellow man receive a mortal blow. DE AN R US S ELL, Equality and Security The Rat~ Are Chasing the Cats EDMUND A. OPITZ KARL MARX, a century ago, claimed that he stood Hegel on his head; thus putting the phi losopher right side up! Friedrich Nietzsche, at about the same time, preached a "transvaluation of all values." Practice tends to follow theory, and the world in our time is topsy-turvy. Values are in verted ; good and evil have changed position; and things are turned inside out.