E4e AMfi n Datly Eighty-four years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Double taxation with representation Thursday, January 16, 1975 News Phone: 764-0552 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 Frisbee: New Pentagon toy IT SHOULD COME as no surprise to anyone that the Pentagon spent a total of $376,000 on a scientific study of the Frisbee for'possible bat- tle use. It is perhaps a tribute to the evil capacity of the human mind and the wasteful expenditures involved in many military programs. An $80,000 contract was awarded to Honeywell, Inc. and one for $109,000 to the Denver Research Institute to develop a better aircraft-launched flare for possible naval application. The Pentagon itself spent $187,000 on the ingenious little toy. The research was started in 1968, but abandoned in 1970 after it was determined that the flare had insufficient burn time and the intricacy of the launcher re- quired more money for development and maintenance. No doubt some military research- er was intrigued by this unique and harmless toy that has given so much pleasure to children and adults. The flare proposal was probably one of many suggestions of possible mili- tary use of the super saucer. Although some have suggested that a steel or razor-rimmed Frisbee would prove a lethal weapon in close combat, pre- vious tests with the boomerang, foot- ball, and ping-pong ball had proved so unsuccessful as to discourage an attempt at that type of application. TfHE TIME WAS that toy manufac- turers copied the latest in mili- tary equipment. There were models of ships, planes, and tanks. A popular doll soldier came with an impressive and frightening array of realistic de- structive devices. Now it seems that the military imaginations of toy mak- ers has, surpassed those of the Amer- ican military. It appears the Penta- gon now scours toy shelves for new ideas in military hardware. Of course, it is necessary for Ameri- can military research to keep ahead of the Russians and Chinese. Under- cover agents from these two coun- tries no doubt have smuggled micro- filmed plans of the Frisbee out of the country. Perhaps they have even been successful in secretly transporting actual working models to their coun- tries. This little expense should be kept in mind when considering the mili- tary's proposed budget of $95 billion for next year. When badly needed social programs are cut back as in- flationary, the Pentagon seems to get what it wants despite unbelievable waste. The military's shopping list is loaded with an array of expenses for vaguely worded and poorly ex- plained projects whose sole result is the waste of tax dollars. IT SEEMS that the Pentagon leaves no stone unturned in providing the most thorough defense of the United States, not even ignoring the utterly ridiculous. When wasteful ex- penditures finally become known by the taxpayer - if they ever do -- one doesn't-know whether to feel un- reasonably safe or uncontrollably sick. -STEVE STOJIC By ALAN RESNICK ONE OF THE inequities that currently exists in our tax structure is the policy of double- taxation on corporate dividends. Dividends are, of course, a di4- tribution of the profits that a corporation makes to its share- holders. As is justifiably t h e case, taxes are imposed on pro- fits, which has the obvious ef- fect of reducing those profits. The amount of profit that re- mains after taxes is less than the pre-tax profit, and dividend rates to shareholders are reduc- ed. The post-tax profits are then distributed among the share- holders, who are again taxed on the dividends they receive. Thus the tax that they pay in the dividends is a tl: on the distributed profits of the ci- poration in which they are part owners - profits that have pre- viously been taxed. The divid- ends received by the stockhold- ers are reduced for a second time. To call for a reduin nf NIX- es on dividends paid to s'ock- holders would be m'oxe insquit- able than the current system of double-taxing. This is because investors in corporations tend to be from higher income classes, and to reduce the am-nt of taxes they pay would be re- gressive in nature. ON THE OTHER hqni, if the amount of earnings used to pay dividends with were declar ed non-taxable, or if the corpora- tions cotuld legally consider their dividends as an exp)anse which would he subtracted from pro- fits before taxes, he benefits from eliminating the doable-tr x- ation would be quickly feir. Dring the past year, the 30 million stockholders in Ame; Eca have, for the most part, taken a drastic beating. Prices of even the most prev*gtotus cor- porations have fallen to one- third and one-fourth «f their earlier highs. By eii-nin-ting double-taxation, the dividen4s rates on stocks wovild increase, which would stimuulae buvrng. This, in turn, would resilt in higher stock nrices. While larse investors such as hags and ir- surance companies woid bene- fit from increased di dend rates and stock prices, more import- antly, higher stock pri es would heln the small investor and to those on fixed incomes. Both the big and the small ;.nve;tor will be aided by stopping the double taxing currently imposed on their dividends, and at t h i s point, any actions that would have the effect of balting out the small investor whose sav- ings have deteriorated would be beneficial. SECOND, energy-field related corporations have long crted that high profits are necessary for future research and explora- tion. In order to realize these high profits they have merely raised their prices M consum- ers in the past. With the e'irn- ination of double-taxing, their profits would be higier, and fu- tnre excessive price rises would not be necessary. Finally, when profits increase, cornorations can afford to em- ploy more workers, 1i a time when 8 Der cent unemployment is on the horizon, changes in tax laws that stimulare eiploy- ment should be seriousty cor'sid- ered. The issle of double-taxatian should not be confused with the current debate on whethe- or not corporate taxes should be raised or not. The double-taa- tion issue snecifies that taxes be eliminated ONLY on those earn- ings set aside for paymert of dividends. Extreme price rises that have lead to excessive pro- fits in the cases of the oil and sugar industries could still be reduced with taxes on overall profits. A CHANGE in the current law would increase depressed stock prices that are at their lowest point in 12 years, would aid in petting a halt to the increasing prices of consumer products, and would act as a stimulus for increased employment. In our ctrrert financially ill era; t h e time has come to end the un- fair practice of double-taxation. -ALAN RESNICK Alan Resnick is a staff writer for *he Editorial Page. The Edi- irrial Page staff encourages members of the University com- mnunity to type UP Atriple s haceQQ and submit articles on this topiic. Thi'eu is still the boss but resistance grows. Ford WINs, U. S. LOSEs ?RESIDENT FORD DID NOT wear his WIN button when he spoke to the nation Monday night, but that doesn't mean he has abandoned his hope that the citizenry can somehow solve their own problems without too much government interference. Biting the bullet has been refined into hunkering down. This probably means you should buy a car but you shouldn't drive it too much. An actual tax rebate, whether init- iated by the president or Congress, will be welcomed gladly by all Amer- Ica. Unfortunately, higher gasoline' prices, food prices and state taxes will mean that the taxpayer can only hope to sink slower into the country's economic morass. Y TAXING FOREIGN and domes- tic oil the president hopes to dis- tribute the added cost more equitably than a simple gasoline tax. Will the driver at the pump appreciate Ford's TODAY'S STAFF: News: Gordon Atcheson, Mary Demp- sey, Ken Fink, Cindy Hill, Judy Rus- kin Editorial Page: Alan Gitles, Paul Has- kins, Marnie Heyn, Debra Hurwitz, Tim Schick Arts Poge: David Blomquist, Chris Kochmanski. Photo Technician: Pauline Lubens Staff Cartoonist: Tom Stevens concern, or will the extra fifteen cents per gallon further erode the re- spectability of our weak president? If the $30 billion Ford hopes to raise from oil and windfall profits tax can be used effectively, most Ameri- cans will forgive him for picking their pockets. A one year moratorium on new federal spending programs would help cure a severe budget deficit problem but it might also leave too many jobless people with no source of income for necessities. Social pro- grams will have to be scrutinized very carefully in 1975, but if they are found to be effective and necessary they should be passed into law and damn the deficit. I'AINTAINING A 5 PER CENT limit on federal salaries and pension benefit increases is unfair unless the private sector agrees to follow Wash- ington's example. Manipulating the incomes of fed- eral employees is one of the few ac- tions the president can take direct- lv to balance the budget. The feds will persevere as long as Ford doesn't pull an Ike and delay entire pay- checks. But if results are not forthcoming before the national election, Ford's measures will be called failures. Now, almost anything short of war looks good. -WAYNE JOHNSON By FRANCES STARNER SAIGON Jan. 13 (PNS)- The chief of all of Vietnam's Buddhist nuns lies in a Saigon hospital, reportedly in critical condition. According to reliable sources, Huynh Lien, the mili- tant leader of the Women's Committee for the Right to Live and of the prison reform move- ment, had been on a prolonged hunger strike at her Ngoc Phuong pagoda here and "may succumb" as a result. How Huynh Lien got out of the pagoda and into the hospital is something of a mystery. Since early November, Ngoc Phuong has been cordoned off by the police and its approxi- mately 40 nuns detained under what has amounted to house ar- rest, apparently to end their participation in a series of street demonstrations against the Thieu government. Budd- hists close to the principal nun will only say, enigmatically, that her removal from t n e pagoda to the hospital was "miraculous." On a small unpretentious street directly behind the Na- tional Assemblybin downton Saigon, another police cordon has been in place since early November. Here Madame Ngo Ba Thanh, the widely-known in- ternational law professor and chairwoman of the Women's Committee, remains under house, arrest, her communica- tions links with the outside severed by the Thieu police. MDME. THANH's detention and that of the Ngoc Phuong nuns have not gone unprotested. Early in December, some 20 nuns from various provinces un- furled banners proclaiming their own hunger strike in front of Saigon's Central Market, where they were joined by three op- position deputies. They carried their banners up the street to the National Assembly. O n e nun, seating herself on the street behind a can of gaso- line, proclaimed her intention of immolating herself by fire if Huynh Lien - her "teacher" - was not freed from detention. Whether this was the "miracie" that brought the chief nun to the hospital is not clear. The demonstration ended abruptly when police officials, who nad rerouted both motor and peles- trian traffic well away from the site, reportedly offered to djs- cuss the nuns' grievanccs. But no one believes the affair of the Buddhist nuns is at an end. "There are nuns willing to immolate themselves," says Senator Vu Van Mau. For t h e Thieu government, the orTblem is that they may not always pro- claim their intentibns in a- vance. OVER THE YEARS, much of the organized opposition to the Thieu government and its pli- cies has been exoilitly 'udd- hist. Whether the issue was per- petuating the war, dissolving political parties, cornptinn ii ernment response. T"his h s ranged from substam1Lial assist- ance to those willing to cr,°a and maintain an officilv-sanc- tioned church, financial "ncer- tives" to local 3uddhist offilals and to businessmen to induce defections within An Quang, and use of draft - and reli;ii"is oe- ferrals - to punish recalcitrant pagodas. For example, last year, a government spokesman, denying that a substantial num'er of monks in a pagoda near Saigon had been arrested, insisted that those involved were not monks at all but draft resisters. A number of young men, it Is said, were moved back and forth between Chi Hoa i:rison and the induction center -be- ing returned to jail each time they refused induction. THE GOVERNMENT'S a c - tions have met with some suc- cess. An open split has appear- ed within An Quang ranks na- tionally which they leadeship is working actively to close. Police repression has inde the students relatively passive over the past three year.;, ac- cording to a prominent Buddh.st political figure. Substantial num- bers of student activists were imprisoned at the time of the 1971 elections - as was Mdm. Thanh herself - and a namber are still in prison. And the se:ret police, he charges, have spent vast sums of money to infi!- trate the schools and universities to provide them with intelli- gence on student organizations and to forestall any new mili- tant activity. Events since the signing of the Paris Accord in January 1373 have seriously impaired the Ad- ministration's ability to mani- pulate the non-Communist op- position. Largely as a result of the sharp decline in both U.S. military and economic aid and direct U.S. involvement in the war, Thieu is today caught up on the horns of a critical di- lemma. SINCE THE official ceaseire, the economy - already in a painful slump since 1972 - has plunged precipitously. W h a t was once described by an AID official as an koverneated peacetime economy" in the midst of war is now in a full- scale post-war recession - but with the conflict unaba'ed. Un- fortunately for Thieu, his mili- tary options are far more lim- ited now than at any time since the ceasefire. Over 1'he past nine months his forces hIva n a t only suffered substanial grrrd losses, particularly ii Central Vietnam and now, wish th fall of the provincial canital of Phuoc Binh, only 75 miles from Saigon; they have lost even more in the way or morale. And - no doubt for this reason - the PRG has reinstated its de- mand that Thieu resign before further talks are heJ either in Saigon or Paris. On another front, Cah eiic father Tran Hn Thamh lan h- ed his Peole's Anti C'orruptior' to secure 1lgal rare tn'tatifn for the dtained pub' ;hers. At each step more group; i a v e joined m i om the sid ites and the police have steppao up their activities - relying prmarily on plainclothesmen - sup- press the increasing puiiiz op- position to the regime. THANH CLAIMS h ns :xu- ments detailing an op rtv'rI codenamed Comet, c'tlng fcr the use of terrorist methos, among others, again.t h2 Op- position. Buddhists sa" the ct- ical injury of an Oov vI de- puty in a street "aien! i mid-November proves the oE- ation is ender way. Obser 'rs have noid that in all this th Buddhis , as Bud- hists,ehave maintained a low profile. t, Quang pagoda in Cholon -- once the sene o many Lon~uontations -- v a s described by a "S ' r+ inde- pendent dalty as "e rrcrcinaI- ily quiet.' The foreign pres n.s speculartd that th:s low level of activ-y indicatnd a relui,- ance on the part of tie Budd- hists to cooperate with the Cal- olics In p_sbing for ga,,: rnrient- al reform. In view ) fe tradi- tional distrust between Buddhists and Catholics - heightened since 1965 when the Catho'ic migrants from the North a,- gressively aligned themselves with the U.S. forces in the South - this explaoa'ion h a s some plausibility. C-tamnly, the ultimate objectives of the Mi- tant Buddhists h vs little in cvornon with those oV the con- servative Father Th Anh - an old ally of the late President Ngo Dinh Diem. BUDDHIST leader;, whether lay or sectarian, ofer a differ- ent explanation for tais pernd of relative quiescence, how.- ever, blaming the government for fomenting internlC dissen- sion. At their Sixth CngrSss convened in Saigon in late De- cember,dAn Quang Buddhists is- sued a call for unity among the anti - government opposition, while working among themsev- es to close ranks within t 1 e faction. The results of an elec- tion held during the convention indicate that the traaiticnal ac- tivist element still holds the up- ner hand, having gained support fromh the return to public :ife of Buddhist leader Thie iT Quang - a major figure in anti- government demonsvrazions n 1963 and 1966. Buddhist spokes- men charge that he govern- ment is actively engaged in try- ing to prevent the lnimv move from succeeding and even the popular Thich Tri Quang faces opposition in his return to lead- ership from several high rank- ing monks in the faction. NEVERTHELESS, the Thieu government can hardly fail to realize that what started a few months ago as a move to erad- icate corruntion has grown at an astonishing rate and now includes the struggle for lowrer prices,ahuman rights,ahr >ader political participation and an end to the fihtin. With the sidcswipes A new Tale to be told of a Nation Once Bold By BOB SEIDENSTEIN GM, America, Chrysler and Ford Just give us a product we cannot afford And run off to Washington only to scream, "What's happening to the American Dream Of chicken in pots and cars in garages." While workers must stand outside factory gates I'm getting damn sick of their awful barages. Just wanting some food for their family's plates. The government cannot begin to make sense While we can't eat a lunch -id still pay our rents. We all can buy gold but what is the use When we have to drink Tang and not orange -juice. And the things that are happening to my dollar Just make me want to get up and holler. Take home wages are so often shrinkin' It takes six Washingtons to equal a Lincoln. And now we can tell a has-not from a has By who can fill up his auto with gas. While oilmen's profits increase and rise Till I can't believe my very own eyes. I might begin to trust William Simon If only I could payoff the pieman. It's getting so bad that I even do dread Just buying some milk and some cheese and some bread. Food prices are still going to go up Till it's a major investment just to sup. And rather than pay so much money for sugar I'll go to the city to help feed a mugger. Inflation, recession, downturn, and drop, Money advisors are surely a flop. The economy's in such a terrible mess. It once was just bad but now it's depress. Bob Seidenstein is a staff writer for the Editorial Page. He rhymes. Contact your reps- Sen. Phillip Hart (Dem), Rm 253, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515. Sen. Robert Griffin (Rep), Rm 353, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515. ..<