40 OPINION Page 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Friday, January 29, 1982 The Michigan Daily. Wasserman Vol. XCII, No. 9$ 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, Mi 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Poor federalism 1vU CUT MY W~e NfAT e~N~Eur ifo TOC-WYOUR t'FPN Detq(Y N 'TH (70\e LAENTr YOU AXd SAFETY REGULATI ONS To I1MAR'ov5 YOUR. ?ROrUCTIV 117 Cz F a P RESIDENT REAGAN'S "new federalism," introduced during his State of the Union address, provides another example of the president's willingness to irrespon- sibly forego his commitment to the poor merely to advance his economic plans. Under Reagan's proposal,5 the federal government would turn over $47 billion of social program, including food stamps and aid to dependent children, to the states by 1984. In return, the federal government would relieve the states of the equivalent financial burden of Medicaid. This swap potentially could cut down on federal waste by shifting more fiscal responsibility to the states. It could also strengthen the federalist goal of making politicians more responsible to their constituents. State representatives, not national figures, would watch over their citizens' social welfare. But while this proposal may seem at- tractive, Reagan has glossed over the possible inequities inherent in the plan. By removing federal control, the swap would allow great disparities in the assistance the poor receive. Those in economically strapped states, a t such as Michigan, might be granted much less aid than those in prosperous states. And although the federal government will assume Medicaid costs, many officials predict the new eligibility requirements will be severely restricted. Under the plan, states would'even tually be able to do away with income supplement programs altogether. White House counselor Edwin Meese has claimed the political clout of poverty-stricken constituents would prevent this occurrence. But political reality measures clout in financial terms, and the poor will be able to muster only flimsy defense for them- selves when states start cutting. Further proof of Reagan's callousness toward subsidizing the poor is evident in rumors concerning next year's budget. Aides now say the president will ask for $63 billion cuts in welfare, food stamps, and other pover- ty programs - one year before "new federalism" would take effect. What Reagan labels a new ' plan might actually mark the end of a federal commitment. America's poor currently seem to be just as expen- dable to the 'federal government as America's poverty programs. YoUR INTEREST RATS6(COSTME MY JOY' -tr TO AEYOt FRoNX ILATIO\1 To SAY YOU'RS SORRY 9! ~1W L.( !" G ' wrf a b 1 6 , gn Li. 11 Ll"1IGJ ly ,demis Ie LE NEW forms of mass media eem to be thriving, the time- honored print media appears to be on. the decline." The Philadelphia Bulletin, an after- noon daily that had been in business for 134 years, will end publication today. The Bulletin's failure is unfortunately an important sign of the declining' strength of print journalism. The decline of the newspaper in- dustry, signaled many years ago by the growing popularity of television news and the falling advertising* revenues of big city dailies, became increasingly evident after last year's closure of the Washington Star. The Bulletin is the fourth major daily to close down in the past six months, joining the Star, the New York Daily News evening edition, and the Philadelphia Journal. Television, with its easy ac- cessibility and capsule overviews of the news, has replaced much daily newspaper circulation. The growth of the suburbs, and with them suburban dailies, has also added to the decline of big city dailies. Afternoon papers, such as the Bulletin and the Star, also faced particular problems of rush hour distribution and specialized suburban competition. The modernization of our com- munication network has led to the ill health of one of the great civilian wat- ch dogs of our age-print media. Civic responsibility still exists in journalism, even though scandal sheets fill the nation's newsstands. It now seems as if most major cities can no longer sustain three large dailies, and most cannot even support two. This lack of healthy competition may eventually lead to lower quality news coverage. A fine afternoon daily, and a long- standing protector of the public's right to information, has been forced to shut down. That is a great loss for its com- munity as well as the nation. SAN FRANCISCO,_ CALIF.-Dark-clad Chinese women clamber down a San. Francisco hill at first light, balancing across their shoulders a pole with plastic bags full of empty aluminum cans at either end. Ten blocks away, a family of six in cast-off overcoats methodically picks through the contents of a downtown, dum- pster,one of the big metal bins in which companies and landlords throw refuse from renovated buildings and lodgings from which tenants have been evicted. AS THE RECESSION deepens, everyone saves and watches for bargains, but for a variety - of Americans losing their toeholds on economic solvency-young and old, native-born and im- migrant - the throwaway society- has made them, become a "nation" of scavengers. "Let's face it," winces 77-year- old Frank Kovar of San Fran- cisco, who lives in a government- subsidized apartment building for the elderly, "if you don't have sticky fingers nowadays, you just can't make it." Kovar, who is obsessed with the. thought of losing his $230 monthly Social Security check or Medicaid benefits as a result of budget cuts, says he and his friends have become "junkers." "WE USED to play cards together, and chess," he says. But few have time for such leisure since taking up scavenging to meet economic needs, and- now they "only nod" as they pass with borrowed:shop- ping carts full of aluminum cans and discards. Salvador, 26, a jobless im- migrant from the Philippines, collects aluminumcans from the same high-yield trash bins he searches every day. A friend who works as a restaurant busboy gathers up throwaways there at closing time and gives them to Salvador, who delivers them to a recycling center. The Living off America 's throwaway' society By Mary Jo McConahay and Pauline Craig two young men split the profits, and last month they earned $1,304 at a penny a can. Elderly "junkers" learn to be even more resourceful than young scavengers because the old are'limited to trash bins they can reach into without climbing, and most don't have vehicles or the strength to haul heavy loads to recycling centers. "SOME READ the obituaries, call the family, and ask for the old clothes," says, Kovar. "Families might want a picture' or the money of a dead person, but they don't want his clothes around." Pants and jackets can be sold to second-hand stores for 30 to 40 cents apiece, "And that can add up to a lot of money," he says. Workers at local recycling cen- ters in parking lots and under freeway overpasses here report that an increasing number of those redeeming cans say they gre doing it not out of thriftiness but as part of survival strategies. A supermarket customer ser- vice representative, Percy San- tos, witnesses survival scavenging daily behind his store where more people, he says, are. now gathering at noon when the store throws out its garbage. "ONE ASIAN family with three kids comes every day," says Percy. "They eat the trimmings from lettuce, cottage cheese, produce, whatever we've thrown out that day. Sometimes as they approach the bins they're hesitant, embarrassed. Then they climb into the trash cans and eat inside." "Junkers" rage at owners who put lids on the dumpsters, then padlock them. "Imagine locking up your garbage!" fumes Kovar. "We consider that we're doing the community a service," San-. tos says, about his' practice of throwing out the store's garbage in an accessible place. BUT NOT EVERYONE believes garbage should be a community resource. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., city officials reportedly are considering spraying beachfront trash cans with kerosene or chemicals to keep transients from living. off the garbage. In the California legislature a bill. is under consideration to outlaw the "theft" of trash sorted for recycling from curbsides-or service alleys by persons without a contract to do so. The proposed penalty is $1,000 or three times the value of the stolen material.s The fact is that elderiy "junkers," some immigrant families, and others on the economic outs are not only com- peting with each other for gar- bage but increasingly are clashing with the systems and companies:r established for rid- ding the cities of their refusey,' a LEONAR D STEFANELLI, president of Sunset Scavengers, a worker-owned garbage contrac- ting firm which has collected San Francisco's trash since 1906, says the newly "rampant" ad hoc collecting operations bring havoc to his'company'sroutinesand cost it money. Stefanelli, who has been in the garbage business 28 years, says the scavenger phenomenon used to involve "just a few winos" or kids looking for kicks, but now he describes it as "wholesale." In some neighborhoods entire families run a block ahead of the big garbage trucks, he says, throwing selected curbside trash into their own pick-ups.or beat-up cars. a At Stefanelli's company a $140 million refuse-derived fuel project is in the planning stages. Garbage taken away before the $100,000 hydraulic compactor trucks get to it is money out of the contractor's pocket. Until legislation is passed, however, it remains arguable whether the scavengers are "stealing" when they pick :up discards or garbage. More likely, they would agree/with the motto, of the proud members of,. a scavenger community in Mexico City: "The garbage belongs to those who work it." 'i 4p S i'f UilhI 11th III Ill III -Y ^^;4.. .. t4V 0a ,N } . [IIl!Ili McConahay and Craig wrote this article for Pacific News Service. 1111 VIII I_1 LETTERS TO THE DAILY: i -4"N. 1,11 <: ;s :. r1 t:p. 4 y,. i + y1 ' j' ----. Schembechler editorial on the n i nrlr f To the Daily: Congratulations on your fine editorial ("Bo's gain represents a loss for University"). So many times, our younger people see so much more clearly than our older ones. In any time, but especially' in these times, these actions can only be looked on as obscene. A sense of misplaced values is- demonstrated by those' respon- sible for Bo's salary hike. While cutting back on education, we can still find $25,000 more for the coach. Michigan is a great university, not because of the football team, but because of the students and faculty. Despite Bo and Canham,' it will continue to be so. I have supported Michigan sports teams for over 50 years, and will 'continue to do so. I stack my right to be called an 'old blue' against anyone's. But theile is a balance. Keep up your good work; you are right. -Paul Parks January 26 I , v ,,...- T ,; 'Itfl /. Weasel WLCOME To 6414 It 131 "ART F4R IGNE~RS-" kW 4( DONr NWE STAR.T OFF TODAY( BY TR'OA1G lb'PEFiNE Al I~MK. RoBiNS, WHjAT 15 ART ? I.' ART IS1T14O5E PALNTLN&S YOU SEE IN SEAR.5 411.99 r OKAY, ±M &1011N& ii) 1 m A LITTLE S'ETbi HER. MR UNL*J 16 fl AT? By Robert Lence A BECAUSE YOuRE NOT WAV Yer. ARr .ISNrT ART UNTiL TE ARTIST WHO M/&Krs it Pies. I 1,~U >;z2s. I* I I , . I is ii