William Penn Life, 1982 (17. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1982-01-01 / 1. szám
briefly KNUCKLE POPS HARMLESS? Unless it’s painful, cracking or popping knuckles will not cause bigger finger joints, according to the Family Circle magazine’s “Here’s News in Medicine” column. Dr. John Gould, chief of hand surgery at the University of Alabama Medical Center, explains in the magazine that when people crack their knuckles, they cause nitrogen normally present in joint tissue to be displaced with enough force to be audible. This is harmless, says Dr. Gould, and the nitrogen naturally builds up to the point that there is enough to pop the knuckle again. However, says the surgeon in the magazine, if you feel pain when you pop your knuckles, a pre-arthritic condition could result. And arthritic joints do get bigger in these cases. HAVE A PLEASANT LIFE To some, the business world is a battleground in which people fight to get what they can. To others, it is an arena in which people strive to serve as they can. Unfortunately, life is not very pleasant for some. NEW CONGRESSIONAL BOUNDARIES NECESSARY Extensive redrawing of congressional boundaries will be required as a result of the 1980 census. Analysis of census population counts by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau shows that most states will need major redistricting before the 1982 elections to be certain that all districts are approximately equal in population. Equality is required of the states under the one-person, one-vote principle established by the U.S. Supreme Court. SATURDAY MOST UNSAFE DAY Saturday isn’t quite as grand a day as most workers relaxing on this off-day seem to think, says the American Council of Life Insurance. That’s because Saturday is the most dangerous day of the week — the day more people die from motor vehicle accidents and homicides than any other day. Motor vehicle fatalities in the nation average about 205 on Saturday, according to government figures, compared to an average of 116 deaths each on Monday and Tuesday, the “safest’’ days of the week. Homicides average about 79 on Saturday and only 47 each on Tuesday and Wednesday. President Ronald Reagan Speaks Outlined Ways Taxpayers Can Benefit From the Administration’s Program Dear Fellow Americans: Many of you have been asking me recently what you could do in 1982 to help our economic recovery program succeed. It is an important question. With all the complex economic jargon we’ve been hearing about budgets, taxes, and supply-side economics, we sometimes overlook the crucial point: Our program will stand or fall, America will regain its economic health or fail to regain it on what we as individuals collectively do. The most successful, dynamic economies in the world today are those based on faith in individuals who are given incentives to succeed; economies where it is understood that growth, prosperity, and ultimately human fulfillment itself are created from the people up, not the government down. For too long our government has not had enough faith in you. It has stood in your way, taking more of what you earn no matter how hard you try. Years of government spending and taxation growing faster than the private economy created the conditions we inherited last January—double-digit inflation, the highest interest rates since the Civil War, and a national debt ready to burst through the trilliondollar barrier. America was not put on this earth just to make government bigger. Our mission has always been to expand freedom and create better lives for our people. Americans everywhere are yearning for a chance to produce again and to save their money and have those savings mean something. That’s what our program is all about, putting this economy and America’s future back in your hands where they belong. Here are three important ways you can help. First, make the Congress understand it must stop overspending. You are careful about how much you spend, and with your support we began last summer to make government do the same. We reduced the growth of the 1982 budget by $35 billion and we did it without jeopardizing the essential programs of the safety net. Unfortunately, the Congress still exceeds its spending targets and Big Government is not yet under control. The budget has doubled since 1975, tripled since 1970. The cure we all want is not easy or painless. If it were, this problem would have been solved long ago. We will need your continued, strong support if we are to succeed where everyone else has failed. Second, tell your representatives not to touch your tax cut. Some of the people who never wanted you to have a tax cut are now trying to take it away from you even before it is fully in effect. Don’t let them. The Congress already weakened the economy unnecessarily by forcing us to delay your tax reduction. Doing so again in an attempt to balance the budget on the backs of you, the taxpayers, would be a tragic mistake. Let’s remember that the income tax reduction you’ll be receiving will barely offset the built-in tax increases between now and 1984 approved by my predecessor. Contrary to what some in Washington think, Americans are not robots with iron backs and bottomless pockets who work only to pay taxes. They work for their families and their future, which isn’t easy when they’re shouldering the highest tax burden in our history. Asking them for more money now would be like asking Max Schmelling to pick himself up to go another round with Joe Louis. During the last 20 years, the Congress raised taxes to record levels but managed to balance the budget just once. It did not tax to get money it needed; it spent whatever money it could get—and a lot of money it didn’t have. So if the deficit continues to grow it will not be because your tax cut was too big, but because spending cuts are too small. Third, take full advantage of the incentives in the new tax laws. They were designed to help you and to bring excitement, opportunity, and growth back into our economy. The tax reductions now taking hold represent the greatest collection of incentives for the average family in the last 50 years. You, the members of working America, will receive the lion’s share of the benefits. Your tax rates will be reduced by 25 percent. A typical family of four earning $25,000 a year will receive a tax cut of approximately $400 in 1982, $1,000 in 1984, and $1,500 in 1986. Beginning 24
