OPINION Page 4 Friday, April 16, 1982 The Michigan Daily 0 .Edited and managed by students W4 The University of Michigan The U.S. Postal Service: monopoly? Vol. XCII, No. 156 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 A dangerous mail Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Redefining poverty rjr BUREAUCRATS in Washington have devised a clever new way to reduce poverty in the United States that doesn't even require additional spending. And while Ronald Reagan seems to oppose most programs con- cerning the needy, insiders say the president likes this innovative plan. What exactly is this plan? Quite sim- ply, it changes the definition of the term poverty. Under current federal standards, the Census Bureau adds social security and welfare benefits to total income when measuring poverty. 4ow the bureau wants to add money rom food stamps, Medicaid, and several other aid programs to income totals. If the new standard is im- ylemented, it will drastically reduce $he number of people eligible for aid pregrams by artificially increasing in- tome levels. The measure, of course, won't educe the number of people who are poor. It merely decreases the number pf people placed below the poverty tevel. The recalculation would serve Teenagers and HE OBSTACLES teenagers face before obtaining birth control :devices often seem insurmountable. !Besides overcoming the pressures of vparental and societal disfavor, they gnust also muster enough courage to go eo a clinic and ask seemingly em-, $arrassing qluestions. Now the federal ~government wants to enforce a regulation that would make this elicate matter even more difficult for teenagers to approach. - The issue of teenage birth control is a complex one, involving a parent's right to responsibility, a minor's right to privacy, and sexual morality. The fac- ts are equally intimidating-nearly two million teenagers are estimated to be sexually active. ' The government currently is .proposing regulations requiring paren- ;ts to be notified before minors are given contraceptives. The argument for notifying parents merits con- sideration, but once the facts are separated from the emotions, the case ifor regulation becomes extremely weak. Proponents of the bill argue that T parents must be clued in when their Ochild wants birth control, because of the health risks and the need for'adult guidance involved. And parental Sguidance on such a personal matter a certainly deserves to be promoted. the needs of politicians, not the poor. A new figure on poverty would seemingly indicate great strides of progress in mitigating the plight of the poor since the days of President Johnson's "war on poverty." It would also serve to vin- dicate Reagan's cuts in aid to the needy-by making it seem that much of the nation's poverty has been effec- tively eliminated. Poverty cannot, however, be erased by a simple change in the rules. The new definition of poverty would only exacerbate the problems lower-income citizens have in getting adequate relief. Under new rules, the aid one receives on, say; Medicaid would only take away from the amount of food stamps one could receive, even if both were necessary for survival. The poor have been knocked about enough by Reagan's tax program and slashes in social aid. A new definition of poverty will only add to the suf- fering. And poverty, instead of ac- tually being reduced, will merely be hidden away. l birth control The supporters of the proposal, however, often use this valid point to obscure their overriding aim-using the bill as a morality tool. They cling to the outdated notion that what teenagers don't know about sex, they won't attempt to do. They ignore the harm such a regulation would impose upon teenagers. Young people will not abandon sex if the federal rule goes into effect. They will more likely abandon birth control when they grow fearful of a parental discovery. Rather than upset a parent, teenagers will likely forego the best way to avoid the problem of unwanted teenage pregnancy. The regulation also will discriminate on the basis of sex and income. The ruling mainly will affect girls, who bear the largest burden for birth con- trol and who face stronger stigmas on matters of sex. The rule will apply~only to teenagers attending a federally- funded clinic-often those who can't afford a private alternative. Planned Parenthood announced yesterday that it will disobey the proposed rule, even though it may mean losing some $30 million worth of federal funds. The rest of the country would do well to join in the opposition, to ensure that teenagers get an unhin- dered opportunity for help on birth control. By T. H. Barnett Although the cries and rallies for that elusive creature known as social justice often seem countless, not one voice has been raised against a dangerous and unjustified power that is part of our everyday lives-the United States Postal Service. "Dangerous" is hardly too strong a word if you look at the situation. In the 'allegedly free and democratic United States, it is against federal law (specifically the private express statutes) to deliver first class mail at anything less than the present postal rate. In other words, you could be fined or thrown in jail for the heinous crime of charging a nickel to deliver local mail. Who or what inspired such legislative claptrap? Ask yourself who stands to gain the most from such a law and the answer becomes clear: the U.S. Postal "Service.' HOW CAN laws prohibiting free trade bet- ween consenting adults be justified? It's ac- tually quite simple. One need only put together a brief argument illustrating that this new restriction will serve something called the public good, and the justification has been made.! Postal officials attempt to defend the private express statutes in several ways. They claim that the Postal Service is a natural monopoly, and that free-market com- petitors would merely "skim the cream" off the most profitable part of the mail service, leaving remote customers out in the cold, without mail. The first argument-that the Postal Service is a natural monopoly-is false. A natural monopoly does not need government protec- tion. If the Postal Service were such a monopoly, it would have no difficulty in overcharge some of their customers to sub=9 sidize others. Just who is being ripped off 'id this scheme is unclear. I can assure you, however, that the nation's' wealthy are not among the victims. The claim that entrepreneurs would not provide adequate service for customers in remote and inaccessible areas deserves serious consideration. Although mail delivery costs for out of the way places could be higher than average in a free market, this may not be such an inequitable solution. Why shou city dwellers subsidize mail delivery for rurq.W districts? Is this a hidden welfare taxc?',If, sox. why is it disguised? It is hardly convincing toy argue that we should maintain a vast, expen- sive, postal bureaucracy to keep prices low for country dwellers. Besides, it is more than likely that competition between delivery ser vices could significantly lower prices for. everyone, including those in remote areas. If, as I have argued, a government-protec- ted postal monopoly is neither necessary nor desirable, then why does it persist? Why aren't reformers rallying around a campaign to stamp out the postal monopoly? THE ANSWER lies in the American addic- tion to the illusory powers of the state. The idea of handing over the task of mail delivery to the creative genius of the marketplace no longer occurs to the average taxpayer. This country has progressed so far down the road to complete state control that truly liberal solutions are greeted with sneers and laughter. A rational defense of state-intervention in human affairs is no longer either supplied o expected. If such a defense of the postal monopoly's grip on the nation's mail doe exist, the public certainly deserves an oppor- tunity to hear it. Barnett is a sophomore in the engineering college. Opening the market on mail driving any potential competitors out of the market. The argument that the Postal Service requires legislative protection is no more than a weak attempt to obscure an obvious fact: the Postal Service would never survive in a free market. Its competition would be so far ahead in efficiency, speed, cost, and dependability that the current system would probably not survive for more than five years. THE SECOND argument against open postal competition is far more interesting and revealing. The argument that entrepreneurs would "skim the cream" off of the mail ser- vice implies that cream-excess profit-exists. By making such a claim, postal authorities are admitting that' they Weasel THE NEXT POC TOlAL- CANPATE is MEL-VIN 6RUWALP. By Robert Lence MF,.VI 1 SPENT T1iE LAST Eiblfr YEAKS STWYIN& TNE. CLE Q ' THE R WOMAFFRRICAN YE y r rAtV E c.E. 1 - CONbRATULAIIONS, MEL-VIN. RSSSSP! ' 1. C I . . ; . 4f LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Getting involved iln the To the Daily: I wholeheartedly agree with your editorial assessment of the reallocation process (Daily, April 9)-no one is worried! The deans of the School of Art and the School . .. to save the University itemissile ap. To the Daily: Congratulations and thanks to Bret Eynon for his clear and ac- curate analysis of what is being done to the University of Michigan (Daily, April 14). Eynon calls the Shapiro-Frye plan "an administrative effort to drastically reshape the Univer- sity," with an emphasis on "technological expertise" and other research with high com- mercial potential. Vice President Frye says that what he and President Shapiro are doing to the University is in- deed drastic. "Think," he says, 'of the metamorphosis of a tad- pole (or a caterpillar) into a frog (or a butterfly). Each is a very different creature after this in- tensive developmental change." What used to be the University of Michigan turns into the Michigan Research Corporation,. with its adjunct Industrial Technology Institute. And where there used to be an art school and a School of Natural Resources there's a robotics institute. May I suggest that between now and September students in* terested in saving the University get to work? Take a copy of Eynon's essay home with you. Take a copy of Frye's five-year plan, too-it was published in the University Record on March 1. Think things through for your- self. Then write or call several of the Regents. Talk to your parents. Talk to alumni whom you know. Urge them to write to the Regents. Go talk to your state representative or your state senator about what this public in- stitution of higher education is turning into. Ask them to talk to the Regents. The Regents are the ones who can save us. Ordinarily they hear only from the administration. We have to change that-or, rather, you have to change that. The faculty aren't going to do anything. We will sit here quietly, and let the University go to hell. We will shake our heads sadly, and draw our salaries. But we won't do anything. So it's up to you. Good luck! -Prof. Bert Hornback April 14 of Natural Resources hav and stymied any active movement to become inv( this process. "Don't waves !" is what we (reminiscent of the Rumor' has it that ti ministration has urged th ce to the deans. If they di And if they didn't, why do attitude exist? I believe that ii ministration is scared of activism. These people bureaucracies-can only f when the climate is "busi usual." However, adminis have studied their history, at the calendar, and; receive an- "A." Any movement in America labor in the 1930s; civil r: the 1950s and 196Os, or th movement in the 1960s) wa successful when it was create a crisis situation. G Motors only allowed the un form when society wo longer tolerate the kill autoworkers or the further of scabs. Racism in the Sou reviews .. . e lulled began to change when cities were student paralyzed by the mass resistanc4 olved in of the oppressed blacks. make If the administration and ou4 hear deans can successfully suppres 1960s). the student voice now, the battle he ad- will be half over before it ha4 ds stan- barely begun. Recent qu'otes b d, why? Billy Frye indicate that th oes this review process is not dependen e ad. only in "reference to the overall student goal of reallocation." Hey Art and all School! Who is next on the "hit unction 'list"-Residential College, Afro, ness as American studies, women' nss atos studies, ad nauseum'? looked An interesting fact: women' should studies lives and geography died social Compare the two programs (be it (women's studies was reviewed ights in and was considered weak y e peace geography was reviewed and was as most considered a fine program-no able to malice intended) and then the General outcomes. Look at what the ad- nions to ministration and the deans are uld no saying, and think! The time to act ling of is now. Remember, extinction i1 hi i forever. 1111 Ui . I r h nng uth only -Jonathan Weiland April 12 I1 rd I.N I', Letters and columns represent the opin- ions of the individual author(s) and do not' necessarily reflect the attitudes or beliefs of the Daily. F Wasserman 'ThAT Wr ARE EW WE \N Nemi(AL AND NO ONE MS M~'RDU(ep EV DNC TO SUOMRT MD IKEA~' AMOUJNT TO. N0O I& OR -NAN 0.5. (7ovFRIgml j, I ..,- i (Vt' I'm