WH[TyERE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MAY.10, 1989, PAGE 7 PAýGESEVEN' The end of an error. THE GREAT TAX EXPERIMENT 0F '89 Do you get the feeling that you're just a guinea pig, that somebody or somnething is out there somnewhere turning the cogs that make you run. Life is just an experinient to test our reactions. The current experinient is titled "How far can you stretch a dollar?" or "How igh can taxes really go before we cry uncle?" A British comedy series of a few years back, 'The Hlitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (radio show curn book cum TV series), postulated that it was really the mice that were in control and they're experimeriting with us instead of the other way around. Comedy of the absurd ... or was it? A month ago, Whitby set its tax increase at 3.9%, right at the inflation level. Then we had Michael Wilson's infamous budget which, depending on how many vices you have, will cost even the poorest a few hundred more. Last week Durham Region set its budget for the year, a mere 19% increase. And the school board with. great effort was able to keep its increase ta a paltry 13%. Next week, prvincia:I treasuirer Robert Nixon will bring in bis budget - rhe's already told us it's tough (sound familiar?) with hefty tax increases. I can hardly wait. And in the next breath tliey tell us we've got ta flght inflation. Somehow something just doesn't connect, or arn I just suffering frorn shell shock- I think we're being reprogrammed - brain-washed if you prefer. Mfind-numbing adversity does that ta people (remember "1984" - the book, that is - that's when it al began.) Perhaps the mice are in control - a grand seheme to change the entire human race into jelly fish. The evidence is aIl around us. There's no intelligence - there's nothing new. We just lceep spending more and more money on the same ideas that failed the last time around. Instead of creative ways to solve problems, our governments spend more to give us less. They mnust be robots. And that leaked budget, well, that was really just a power surge that caused a blip in the operating systemn and things ran out.of-control for awhile. Probably caused by sun-spots. Thatfs what one of the robots at Hydro-Quebec blamed their last black-out on. The comments from our politicians on the leaked budget were so predictable. I now' realize - they've ail become machines. The politiciens are merely progranimed autamatoms. They opened their mouths and the words flowed out, the brows furled on cue, the f»ists struck the tables with programmed accuracy. The animation was superb. The voice-sync flawless. Disney co>uld do no botter. And the media? Every station in the country dropped everything and ran the "leak" story. The word 'leak" produced a conditioned subliminal response. Tlhey were al pre-programmed. Have the nice gone that far? How many real people are there left out there? Did you notice in the last lection that Turner walked rather stiffly? - blamed it on a bad back. He had an "operation" afterwards ta correct the mechanica] deflciency. 0f course the economnists and assorted other experts have been part of this for a long timne. Their cominents adhere rigidly to the lst law of computer literacy, "Garbage in, garbage out." Spealdng of garbage, only a robot could take pride in the megadumps they propose, with giant machines covering up the natural world. A world suitable only for machines which can harness the methane gas and the ultraviolet rays that will pour through the ozonie holes and the 'heat from the greenhouse effect. Have I gone bonkers? Arn I a quivering mass of paranoia? Can you really believe that there are people in control when we have millions unemployed and just as many jobs unflhled, but somehow the two just don'dt match. Something's got ta be changed - even a dumb computer should be able ta see that. Yet we spend more and more on education to produoe yet another generation of unemployables. Our justice system spendls millions putting people behind bars to "protect us," then someone else forgets why they're there and lets them out. And what do you think of a jail system that controls their inmates' every activity, yet admits that drugs are bought and sold within their walls and they>re powerless to stop it. 1 NEW CARNEGIE E LIBRARY9 MAY, 1914 Col. J. E. Farewell opened this library building, constructed with funds from the Carnegie Corporation, on May 1, 1914. Standing at the.corner of Byron and Dundas Streets, it bas been designated under the Ontario Heritage Act and now houses prestige offices. whltby Ardilve phao 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, May 9, 1979 edition of the WHITB FREE PRESS " Maureen MeTeer, wife of Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark, visited Whitby on May 3 as part of the Federal election carnpaign. " The Dr. J. 0. Ruddy General Hospital bas received approval of its standards fromn the Canadian Council onHosptal Accreditation. *Fifty-five Whitby and Oshawa students attended a career day at the Whitby Psychiatrie Hospital as part of Mental Health Week. " Kevin Murphy of Brooklin has won an Ontario Crafts Council poster contest. He is a graphic arts student at Georgian College, Barrie. 25 YEAIRS AGO from the Thursday, May 7, 1964 edition of the WHiTBY WEEKLY NEWS " Town Council is studying the need for a United Appeal for Whitby charities. " Plans are nearing completion for a new fire hall at Brock and Coîborne Streets. " Whitby bas recorded its first fire fatality in 38 years in the death of Mrs. Christine Taylor. " Garden Street is described by Deputy Reeve George Brooks as "a good cowpath." 75 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, May 7, 1914 edition of the WHITBY GAZEmr AND CHRONICLE " Col. J. E. Farewell officially opened the new Whitby Public Library at Dundas and Byron Streets on May 1. " The Fruit Branch of the Ontario Department of Agriculture bas leased the Fothergill property on Dundas Street West for a demonstration orchard. " P. B. Whitney & Co. have resumed construction of the new concrete wharves at Whitby Harbor. " A new drinking fountain bas replaced the brass cup in front of the post office at the Four Corners.