Page 14 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • 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: As we just passed the fourth budget under Governor Christie that is not only balanced but does not increase taxes, I wanted to highlight some of the many items in this budget. I am proud to have been a sponsor of this bipartisan budget that continues to promote New Jersey’s economic revival while maintaining spending priorities to provide tax relief to middle class families. Here are some of the highlights of our fiscal year state budget: • Protects our most vulnerable citizens: Expanding health care access through Medicaid will save taxpayers $227 million this year. The budget also increases support for uninsured children, homeless veterans, senior citizens, and increased funding for nursing homes. • Supports education: This budget sets a state record by spending nearly $9 billion in state aid to fund schools. • Invests in higher education: In an effort to continue to keep our best and brightest students in New Jersey, this budget increases tuition aid grants by $17 million to nearly $353 million in financial assistance for college students. • Protects employee retirements: After enacting pension and benefit reforms that will save taxpayers $120 billion, this makes the single largest pension contribution in our state’s history. During these four years under Governor Christie, New Jersey has contributed more into our pension fund than any governor over the previous 15 years. We have been able to meet these priorities and many more while spending less than Governor Corzine’s 2008 budget, preserving a responsible budget surplus and reducing our reliance on one-time budgetary gimmicks. Our job is not complete; my goal for the fall will be to work with Governor Christie and my Democratic colleagues to enact real tax relief for middle class families by O’Toole outlines budget passing an income tax cut. It is imperative that we never lose sight of the fact that this is your money and deserve to keep more of it in your pocket. Senator Kevin J. O’Toole District 40