Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • July 17, 2013 ward the time machine to the second decade of the new century. The interest on a half-million dollars, if you live around here, might cover the property taxes on the house with the paid-off mortgage. Social Security might cover food, energy, water, and gasoline. Fewer and fewer people will be taking expensive vacations, buying new cars, or eating at restaurants, as they realize the money does not stretch through the month the way it should. The airlines, auto makers, auto dealers, and restaurateurs are already feeling the pinch. The slump in interest rates has had an awful effect on hard-working and thrifty older people. Do I remember 12 percent interest on CDs, or was that a dream? Do I remember the days when real property values went up 10 percent a year, or was that a delusion? When you take money out of the economy through taxation, you only compound the problem because the money you take out of the economy does not go for merchandise, or for the wages of the people who make and sell merchandise. America seriously needs a fair minimum wage -- one a worker can live on. The minimum wage is now so low that people who work for it can qualify for Food Stamps and other poverty benefits. Guess who pays for the Food Stamps and the other benefits: People who make four or five times the minimum wage, but not enough for the sort of tax shelters that protect the very rich. People should not be turned away to starve or freeze. However, people with multiple college degrees should not be taxed half their income so that money can be used to subsidize employers of the unfortunate in the exploitation of workers. Once the minimum wage is increased to a living wage, the various tax-funded programs that subsidize underpaid workers can be restricted to those who cannot work. The leftover money can be deleted from the tax bills and go back into the consumer economy if people are not too scared to spend it. The trouble is that the mention a fair minimum wage triggers screams of “socialism” from the party that draws most of its campaign money from the employer class. They have to learn not to listen and go with what is good for America. The other party, which garners a large amount its money from the teachers’ unions and public service unions, has established a policy of subsidizing college for everyone. College is not supposed to be for everyone. College is supposed to be for people who are smart enough to absorb a professional education with subjects such as higher-level mathematics, engineering, and foreign languages not learned at home. Working-class families love the idea of sending their kids to college so the kids can become middle-class. This works some of the time, but you can fool some of the people all of the time. A startling number of kids who went to college without the IQ or the motivation to make college work either do not finish, or get a degree so soft that it does not lead to job offers. U.S. veterans of the combat arms or combat-support should get a year of college for every year they serve, or the whole thing if they were wounded or decorated for valor. After that, federal scholarships to colleges should be limited to cover only those who are truly indigent and willing to learn something that will lead to employment. Once the free ride is over, that money should be returned to the taxpayers. Of course, we will still need to raise money, even if we cut the subsidies for the underpaid at risk of outraging the Republicans or cut the scholarships that do not lead to real jobs at the risk of outraging the Democrats. Here are some ideas for raising money on a local basis. Speeding in residential areas is life-threatening. I suggest regular ambush patrols and fines appropriate to the offense. Cut the speeder some slack for the first five miles over the limit and then soak them for $100 per mile over. The streets will be safer in no time. Anyone who makes an illegal U-turn in a restricted area needs to go to court. I saw a food delivery truck the size of a bus do this on Rock Road. I lived to tell of it. If the driver cannot read the signs, he should not be driving a large commercial vehicle. Smoking cigarettes is a vice politicians are afraid to touch. Go with a $100 fine for anybody who discards a cigarette butt anywhere outside a receptacle either on public property or on private property other than their own. We got rid of dueling with some regulation, did we not? Littering in general is not quite as obnoxious as smoking is to non-smokers, but it is plenty bad enough. Police officers could be trained to take fingerprints from discarded water bottles -- just kidding on that one -- but anybody seen littering should be fined. America can be saved, not as the only international world economic power, but as a great place to live. The dearth of partisan politics is a first step. George Washington’s advice about avoiding political parties, which he called factions, is more important today than it was in the 18th century. While Americans were celebrating their independence and their political freedom --assuming they avoid causes that lead to an IRS audit or a Justice Department wire tap - people in Bangladesh were still sorting through the ruins of a garment factory that collapsed and killed at least 1,127 workers. Americans are beyond all argument better off than the people of Bangladesh. The same country that once controlled colonial America controlled Bangladesh for about 180 years after George Washington and Congress sent them packing. Bangladesh also had problems with Pakistan in more recent times. The country has sensible environmental standards: Local people who hunt for wild honey in isolated jungles are not allowed to shoot or spear the tigers, though they can whack them on the nose with sticks to make the tigers lose interest in eating honey hunters. Crocodiles and poisonous snakes are actually more dangerous than tigers. A major export of Bangladesh is venomous snakes, which need to be handled with care. For reasons like these, the people are not averse to working indoors. About four million Bangladeshi people -- three million of them women -- work in the garment industry sewing both discount and designer clothing. The wage for a line worker is $37 a month. These employees are our new competitors in the global economy. They make stuff cheaper than we do, and people buy it. The global economy has obviously gotten beyond the control of partisan politics, because neither major party can come up to the absence of productive work and regular employment with an answer their own voters will accept. Adversaries though they are, hand in hand they are marching toward making America both endangered and irrelevant. The answer to this is for men and women of good will to recognize the dearth of politics -- not death, but rather absence. We do not need politicians. We need people who really love America and the American people, and not just on July 4. James B. Huntington, author of “Work’s New Age: The End of Full Employment and What it Means to You,” recently confirmed the situation. Huntington says that working ages in America were routinely 21 to 65, but that the need to keep youngsters in education longer and the disposition of some employers to throw older workers out of their careers long before 65 has limited the earning portion of the population to a tighter spectrum. Based on what I hear locally and from friends around the country, kids are still dependant at least for school money through their mid20s or beyond, and a lot of people are downsized out of a job around age 50. Conversely, those who can find work sometimes keep it up until they are well past 70 -- sometimes because they want to work, and sometimes because they cannot afford to retire. Step into the time machine, look out for the Morlocks, and go back about 50 years. People who endured the Great Depression and World War II as working adults assumed that if they had a paid-off mortgage and a half-million in the bank, their Social Security and the interest on the halfmillion would cover a modest retirement. Now fast for- Saving America’s freedom Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: The Midland Park High School Class of 2014 parents recently held the Junior Class Basket Fundraiser to provide funds for Project Graduation, a substance-free, safe graduation celebration for our children. Thanks to the generous support of our event attendees, community members, and especially our local businesses, we were able to host a fun and successful event. We received hundreds of donations from individuals and businesses both near and far for which we are profoundly grateful. An event of this magnitude requires great teamwork and cooperative effort. The parents of the Class of 2014 who donated their time, talent, and energy to make this event a success are to be commended for their dedication. We would also like to mention the outstanding efforts of the Class of 2014 students who helped set up, break down, and run over 330 baskets to winners. A special note of gratitude goes to the Midland Park High School staff members who also helped in countless ways to make the night run smoothly. We thank you all for supporting Project Graduation 2014 and our children. Laura Thomas, Chairperson Midland Park Basket Raffle Committee Grateful for community’s commitment Dear Editor: The Franklin Lakes Board of Education has stated on numerous occasions that it desires and values public feedback. Yet in April and May, when I distributed and presented two separate letters that clearly expressed public opinion in a way never before seen in our district, the FLBOE seemed to dismiss feedback without consideration, even though Seeks Cheryl Best’s reinstatement 198 people supported Cheryl Best for curriculum director in the first letter, and 175 people supported our teachers and administrators with a vote of no confidence in the board in the second letter. Many facts make a very strong argument that Ms. Best made our district better than it was before. Ms. Best knows our district, our teachers, and, most importantly, our curriculum. While five trustees voted on April 30 not to renew Ms. Best’s contract, they appear to have focused on her few faults, instead of her many accomplishments. Sadly, they gave no factual reasons for doing so, even though she waived her privacy rights. I have asked the FLBOE to do what is right for our district: Reinstate Cheryl Best by either offering her job back to her or hiring her as a consultant until they can find a person of equal or higher caliber. There is much work yet to be done: Preparing curriculum and training for Singapore Math at FAMS, implementing changes to language arts at FAMS, training 18 recently hired teachers, and preparing necessary revisions to science, music, and library media. Ms. Best was on track for success, so please let her finish the amazing work she started. Don’t leave our district empty handed when we have someone who has proven they can perform well and with dedication: Someway, somehow, please reinstate Cheryl Best. Vicki Holst Franklin Lakes (Note: Ms. Holst is a school board candidate.) Dear Editor: As we just passed the fourth budget under Governor Christie that is not only balanced but does not increase (continued on page 19) O’Toole outlines budget