4 . .. .. k ' ' OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, December 13, 1988 The Michigan Daily q Ea ed btdenta Uiversit y Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Soaking the poor Vol. IC, No.67 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. UnCo-operative LAST THURSDAY, the Ann Arbor People's Food. Co-op went to court, arguing that it was a non-profit organi- zation and not a cooperative. It seems that this is not merely a semantic .change. In recent years, the People's Food Cooperative, Inc. has become less of an organization run by its membership and more of an organization dedicated to operating as any other grocery store. Organizational changes have moved the store toward the same markets that Kroger would target. For this reason, the Co-op started selling items such as Progresso Soup, Breyer's and Haagen Daaz ice cream and Bernel cottage cheese and potato salad, while foods not normally found in a supermarket are two to four times as expensive as Bernel foods, for in- stance. While the pricing policy favors foods such as Haagen Daaz, organizational policies are aimed at making the Co-op inore hierarchical. The last three annual :neetings of the membership - the only time that members can exercise their decision-making powers -were farcical because the information af- forded to the membership about these meetings was minimal or non-existent. Minutes for the last three meetings are two paragraphs long each and contain 'obvious factual inaccuracies regarding the time and people presiding. In addi- tion, the March, 1988 meeting did not even have a quorum of 50 people. Nor was there any notice of the issues to be discussed at the meeting. According to the Co-op's by-laws available in the Member Handbook, the whole mem- bership must be informed of issues to come up before there can be a decision reached. This is to ensure that those ,Oho care about certain issues will hmow that these issues are coming up and can attend the meeting. In addition, to the food pricing poli- cies and organizational weaknesses of the Co-op, the membership itself is in- creasingly restricted. In 1978, mem- bers could work four hours a month or pay a membership fee. In 1980, mem- bers joined for as long as desired for a 12 dollar loan to the Co-op. In 1981, the Board of Directors raised the requirements of membership to a 12 dollar annual fee. In 1986, three Co-op officials unilaterally changed the policy to a 60 dollar loan and convinced the membership to approve.. Since then, the Co-op has moved in an ever more capital-intensive direction at the expense of food prices and membership fees. Ideas such as buying cash registers that are computerized to keep track of each member's purchases put unnecessary pressure on food prices and member pocketbooks. The People's Food Co-op sports a name and written "Statement of Pur- pose, " also available in the Member- ship Handbook, that attracts support from the community. It now seems that the veneer of membership input and values is but another marketing ploy because the Board of Directors in- creasingly ignores the "Statement of Purpose" in actual practice. The Co-op is neither a Co-op nor a responsible corporation, which would at least have to keep its shareholders informed of important business matters and hold well-organized shareholder meetings. The newsletter of the Co-op treats issues that genuinely reflect the values of the Co-op membership, but it does not provide meaningful informa- tion to the membership on the internal workings of the Co-op. Meetings and reports are not readily available and surveys and meetings of the member- ship either do not happen or happen in fashions counter to democracy. By Mark R. Greer After years and years of cuts in aid to indigent families, massive reductions in housing subsidies for the homeless and severe cutbacks in federal aid to education, we might winder what more our govern- ment could possibly do to make the plight of the poor in our country cven worse. Always searching for new avenues and creative ways of impoverishing the indi- gent and the working class, the cadre of public policy "experts" advising the gov- ernment has found a vehicle to oppress the poor where we would least expect them to turi one up - the federal tax system, tra- ditionally an institution that has (mildly) redistributed income from the rich to the poor by levying a higher tax rate on the former than on the latter. All of the talk about restructuring the federal tax system in Washington these days centers on imposing consumption taxes, both as a means of reducing the federal budget deficit and of promoting ef- ficiency and output in the economy. What all consumption taxes share in common is that they take from the poor and give to the rich. Under a consumption tax scheme, the lower one's income is, the greater is the fraction of her income paid in taxes, since poor people must spend a higher proportion of their income on the necessi- ties of life (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) than rich people do. No wonder that con- sumption taxes are in such favor among conservative policy advisors these days. But what makes this matter even more Mark Greer is a doctoral candidate in Economics and Vice-President of Rackham Student Government. disturbing is that there is virtually no dis- sent from taxing the poor anywhere within the mainstream of public policy debate. Even liberal economists and policy advi- sors have embraced this backward, regres- sive proposal, and their doing so appears to stem largely from the perceived unpop- that the theory used to guide national eco- nomic policy is well reasoned and some- what realistic, we find instead that the cutting edge of this theory is a mathematical model of a one person (Robinson Crusoe) economy where Mr. Crusoe lives forever and knows the precise 'Now that advocating traditionally liberal positions prevents one from obtaining highly-paid, prestigious policy jobs, the so- called liberals have jumped on board the Reagan bandwagon.' ularity of traditionally liberal policy pre- scriptions today. The liberals' abandon- ment of their traditional policy positions clearly reveals how superficial and phony their commitment to helping the poor has been all along. Now that advocating tradi- tionally liberal positions prevents one from obtaining highly-paid, prestigious policy jobs, the so-called liberals have jumped on board the Reagan bandwagon. The regressive character of contemporary liberalism also demonstrates how far to the right mainstream public policy theory has shifted in recent years. An examination of the theoretical -un- derpinnings of contemporary economic policy prescriptions should make us ques- tion whether these policies are truly moti- vated by a belief that taxing the poor will raise economic efficiency and output. Mainstream (neoclassical) economic the- ory, a theory involving suspect theoretical assumptions and having a fairly dismal record predicting economic.ouicomes, is commonly used to justify consumption taxes. Although we might like to believe numeric probability of each conceivable occurrence in the future. (If the reader finds this too ridiculous to believe, see Thomas Sargent, Macroeconomic Theory, Chapter 16.) This may explain why mainstream economists have been unable, since the late 1960s, to "predict" reces- sions until three months after they started, on average. (See Business Week, 1/12/87) Certainly, those pushing for consump- tion taxes must be aware of the. silly ideas behind and disappointing predictive track record of the theory used to legitimize their position. So it appears doubtful that politicians are really following the advice of the "experts." Instead, the relationship goes the other way; those holding political power and influence use their hired economists/lackies to justify their policies in the eyes of the electorate. Of course, we should also suspect that perhaps policy makers, both Democrat and Republican, are not motivated by a sincere belief that taxing the poor will increase economic output; rather their intention may be solely to promote the interests of the rich. 4 Objective historyamyth 4 Avoid the Noid TOM MONAGHAN, the president of Domino's Pizza, donated $50,000 to the Campaign to End Tax-Funded Abortions. Although spokespersons for the company quickly assured the public that the donation was personal and not corporate, considering that Monaghan owns 97 percent of Domino's, the money clearly came from the corporation. People must be made aware what the. money they spend on Domino's pizza goes for. This donation, to an organi- zation whose purpose was to deny poor women the financial means for an abortion, is only another step in Domino's pattern of personal-rights violations. Last year, an employee was fired be- cause his hair was longer than Domino's dress code allows. Women are allowed to have long hair, but male employees, even in jobs which do not involve contact with the public, may not. A sexual discrimination suit is pending. "Domino's drug testing program is one of the most severe in the country. It mandates testing for any employee in line for a promotion, or "for cause." The policy affects 30,000 employees in six countries. :Monaghan spends vast amounts of rmoney on various projects, with a conspicuous consumption rivaling Donald Trump's. Last year he spent hundreds of thousands on Christmas lights at Domino's Farms which geated serious traffic problems and caused the Coalition of Concerned Neighbors living in Ann Arbor Township to protest. He spent $150 m~illion on the~ vast cornorate great many of his "socially active" ef- forts are seriously flawed. He dis- tributed excerpts from anti-drug articles on his pizza boxes. Although this one action may seem positive, the capability to distribute any propaganda he wishes is insidious. His franchise in Honduras, whose profits go to the Catholic Church, pays starvation wages and exploits Hon- duran labor. When the' franchise opened, a Domino's spokesperson said that it's intent was to "spread American entrepreneurship to Third World coun- tries." This exportation of American capitalism is part of a systematic op- pression of underdeveloped nations. Monaghan has huge influence over Ann Arbor's media and power struc- ture. The Ann Arbor Township board has given Domino's Farms three zon- ing exemptions and a 5-year property tax abatement which costs the city $97,000 a year. His Board of Directors includes Former Regent Eugene Power, whose family controls a chain of newspapers and has a great deal of influence at the University, Bo Schembechler, John Fetzer, former Tigers owner and owner of a chain of radio and television sta- tions, and two University business professors. There are no women. Monaghan, through Domino's and his real-estate company, Tom S. Mon- aghan Inc., owns the sports cable sta- tion PASS, a satellite, the Marriot Inn,. and various other pieces of real estate. He is also on the board of directors of the National Bank of Detroit. He funds an architecture professorship at the University and organizes most of the Howard Zinn, professor of Political Sci- ence at Boston University, has authored numerous books on U.S. history, most notably A People's History of the United States. Zinn, who will be speaking at 4 p.m. today at Rackham Auditorium, spoke earlier with Daily staffer Jonathan Scott. D:What is the most valuable lesson grassroots student activist groups can learn from the student movements of the 1960s and 70s? Z:Well, I think the most important thing they can learn is not to despair because the movement seems small and impotent, be- cause it seems small as if you're not get- ting anywhere, it seems as if, well, the same presidents are being elected over and over again, or the same policies are being followed, or the supreme court is looking worse and worse. It's very important to understand from the history of so'cial movements that movements fail, fail, fail, fail; but if they persist, the common sense of people overcome those failures and movements grow, and the facts, the reali- ties come through. And that if you're pa- tient enough, if you work hard enough, if you stick at what you're doing, if you don't despair, that you will make changes in society. The civil rights movement and the anti- war movement are good examples of that, as is the feminist movement. That is, they looked as though they were helpless movements - didn't look as though the civil rights movement could possibly succeed: a handful of poor Black people against the entire police forces of the South and the negligence of the federal government. But they persisted and they grew and they developed an appeal to huge numbers of people which overwhelmed the opposition. The same thing with the anti-war movement - that ultimately the truth came out because people persisted, and the movement that looked as if it could not stop the war ended up as succeeding. And this very unusual event - that is, an in- ternal anti-war movement - caused the most powerful government in the world to turn back from its policy of continuing the War. And the women's movement, again, succeeded in changing the consciousness of a whole country on issues of sex and sexual equality. Of course none of these of faith in the continuation of the struggle - no matter how long it takes - that is the most important thing one can learn from past struggles. D: To what extent has racism. - the per- petuation of racist myths and stereotypes. -.acted in the U.S. to divide and separate certain groups that have much in common economically and would gain by joining together in a unified effort? Z: Well, that probably has been the key. factor in the United States in keeping the working classes in this country apart. In the South it kept poor whites and poor Blacks .at odds with one another,. and racism became a modelist device for divid- ing a group that, if it could have gotten together, could have transformed the South. The populous movement at that mo- ment in American history in the 19th- century when, for briefly, poor whites and poor Black farmers got together, there was that potential for creating a great move- ment, but racism destroyed it. So racism has been a very undermining factor in trying to bring about important social change'in this country. It is alive, as you can see by what happened in the recent presidential campaign where racism pushed aside the most exciting candidate in the country and brought to the floor two mediocre candidates among whom we then had to choose. D: There have been charges against the Michigan Daily that the paper's news policy deviates from an objective standard of journalism. Do the same unspoken rules that you say underlie the writing of history also apply to news reporting ? Z: It's interesting because the field of journalism is very similar to the field of history in that you have people who are reporting on what has happened,,except historians report on events of the distant past whereas a reporter is reporting on _ events of the immediate past. But what is quite clear is that the reporter chooses, of the editor chooses out of an enormous number of events that have just takeq place -: chooses which events to even write about. That in itself is a departure 4 from objectivity. The Times claims "all the news that fit to print." Obviously it's not true. No matter how many pages of close, small print . that the Times gives you, it is.not printing all the news that's fit to print. It is printing all the news that its editors have seen fit to print. The same thing holds true of any, newspaper and it's true with any historian; We're faced with an infinite number of facts - an infinite amount of information - and the historian, like the journalist, selects out of that what he/she considers important. Everybody should understand that so there's no pretense about it. Of course you have an obligation not to hide: things that are embarrassing to you, or embarrassing to people who employ you, or embarrassing. to the nation you belong to, or embarrassing to some set of ideas that you uphold. You have an obligation to be honest but that honesty does not do away with the problem of selecting what subjects to deal with, and, when you deal with those subjects, deciding what in that story you'll emphasize. Everybody should know this when they approach a newspaper - ev erybody should know this when they ap- proach history: that there is no such thing as objective history; no such thing as ob- jective reporting; that everything is a se- lection. So as long as the reader understands this then he is forewarned; then he looks for other sources; -then he joins - to this particular interpretation.by this reporter - he joins other interpretations. Then out of these various interpretations he comes to- his or her own conclusion. That's the closest you can get to objectivity: taking a multiplicity of subjectivities and making up your own mind. C#4 THE TWJELFTH- DAY OF CHI2.VShMAS. MY TIMus LOVJE GAVJE ID ME _ IWhELVE HOM9L5SS FREEZIWN. EVEN C 41 DREN STiARVING. 7Ew S1,5+CS LDNG;. NINE .FARMS FORCLOSNNG; iE1JN MAJicIM-M FAt.LUNG ; 51K DRUGCeRSP5 USNI-.