1983_03 Insight March 1983

              Insight
Opinion
3£
Sean Canfietd       The New Federalist papers      gcott Hatfield
Cold turkey:
The Democrats go through drug withdrawal
There is no question that state and
local governments across the U.S.
have exceeded their taxable capacity
limit (a point In which increased tax
rates reduce tax revenues). A person
with a gross Income of $50,000 pays as
much as $8,565 per year in New York
to state and local taxes whereas in
Texas, this figure is as small as $2,777
(Is it not Ironic that Texas grew tbe
second most of any state between
1970-1980, whereas New York was the
only state to lose population - over
one million?) Most of the liberal areas
of this country- large cities and most
of the Northeast - are suffering from
economic stagnation and a decrease
to the population as people flee to
areas of greater promise which Just
hapen to have tow tax rates (Texas,
Florida and New Hampshire). What
needs to be done is to reverse tbe
trend toward higher taxes with bigger
tax cuts.
A shining example of oppressive
taxation is New York City. A bastion
of liberalism, tbe epitome of big
government gone wild, this economic
basket-case has been the showboat for
all the big-spending, big-government
programs of the Great Society. These
social welfare programs have required massive amounts of money,
and most of it came from increased
taxes on New York's dtizens and
businesses. It is estimated that approximately 44,500 manufacturing
Jobs were lost for each one point Increase to the business Income tax.
Between I960 and 1975, New York City
lost 500,000 manufacturing Jobs, and
hundreds of millions of dollars
through lost revenues. It did not have
to be this way, but it is, because tbe
government's response has been increased taxation (combined state and
dty tax rates on personal income can
go as high as 16 percent).
Tbe incentive which exists for
people to move out of high tax, high
cost-of-living states like New York
and Massachusetts (years of liberal
polides neve changed its name into
"Taxachusctts") to low tax, low cost-
of-living states like Texas Is shown by.
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A
family of four would need $29,677 to
live comfortably In New York City,
but only $20,638 to nave the same standard In Austin, Texas.
Hie new obvious that Ugh taxation is not tbe answer. It raises tbe
levd of inflation thus creating a terrible circle to tbe taxed Individual. Tbe
taxed person has less money to spend
is worth lees due to rising prices. So,
In pay. The employer has to compensate for bis losses (which are now
threefold due to higher taxation, inflation, and salary demands) so be
raises tbe price of bis product/ser-
vice. Add to this the fact that produc-
tivity wiU faU because the worker will
be at tbe seme output, but getting
more pey. Conclusion: Higher taxation causes a situation in which people
bare to pay more with less revenue. It
is very simple arithmetic.
Tax the rich! It stands to reason
that tbe U.S. economy would greatly
benefit if the rich paid more taxes.
What the liberal politicians have been
unable to understand, however, is that
you can not get rich people to pey
more to tax revenues by raising their
tax rates. When rates are raised, it
becomes even more profitable for
them to hire lawyers and accountants
to discover loopholes in our present
tax system. This produces a dead loss
to the economy. In other cases, tbe
rich stop working entirely and
squander their capital, (drinking
wine, eating caviar, and sailing
yachts?) which Is another loss to tbe
economy. Either way, the rich contribute less to tax revenues and tbe
burden of supporting government expenditures crashes onto the middle
class and the poor.
Thus, the only alternative to Increase revenue is to lower taxes. People are willing to pay 10, even 20 percent of their incomes to the government. But 30, 40 and 50 percent Is
outrageous. Higher taxes have always
resulted to lower productivity. Prior
to tbe Kennedy tax cuts, a person
making $100,000 before taxes only
made $11,810 more than someone earning $50,000. With this kind of situation, incentive is dampened to work
hard, and causes more unemployment, more inflation and ultimately
lower living standards for everyone.
Putting the tax load on tbe most productive sector of society invites
disaster for everyone, including the
low-income families that initially got
tax breaks.
Fortunately, tax cuts reverse this
trend, tbe classic eaaWfet being tbe
Kennedy tax cuts. First Implemented
in 1984, tbe tax cuts were credited
with a $30 billion contribution to the
GNP by mid-1965. Tbe effects on the
dramaUc. Tbe unemployment rate
dropped between 1961-48 from 6.0 percent to 3.1 percent. In terms of adult
black males tbe drop was even more
111.7
to 1961 to a mere 3.7 In 1988. In no
other time have minorities fared so
well. Inflation was always low, end
With the election of Carter in 1976,
the trend toward Keynesianism
returned, and with it en Increase to
tbe unemployment rate, a massive
rise to Inflation and a disastrous drop
to productivity. As soon es Carter
started raising taxes, tbe economy
worsened. As it worsened, tbe
Georgia Democrat increased the
taxes again, and the economy worsened even more. This led to his crushing
defeat to the 1980 Presidential Election.
With Reagan to office, we bare
been blessed with much-needed tax
cuts end readjustments. Inflation has
been reduced by 75 percent of its 1960
level. Whatever one feels about the
current administration, it is Irrational
to blame it for the high unemployment
provoked by the oppressive taxes of
its Democratic predecessor. In addition, Interest rates are down, thus
housing starts are up. There is no such
thing as a "quick cure." AH diseases
and illnesses must be cured completely for total recovery, and the only way
to do that is with desire and incentive
brought about by a good dose of tax
cuts. Are you listenin', Tip?
P.S. Sean Canfleld (history major,
geography minor) la a redneck who
likes to listen to Mahler and recite
Chaucer tn Middle English. He likes
football and chess. Scott Hatfield
(music major) Is an elitist and thinks
trying to move an ellipsoid bladder
100 yards la barbaric. Be with us next
week when we explain why freedom la
a terrible thing when squandered on
inferior beings.
What f* NIT?
AUffTHSR IN A S£R£IS
OF QUESTIONS TO
.     PUZZUL   THM.
CCLLtLGIAT£ AVND...
A NEW ENGINEERING SCHOOL  BAseo
ON THE NANONIAN PRINCIPLE.
AN   OPPORTUNITY FOR   OVER ZEALOUS
SPORTS CASTERS  TO PULL.  THEIR FOOT
OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS.
A MEANS Of  ENTERTAINMENT FOR LOCAL
BUISNESSMEN AND THEIR SNOTTY BRATS.
A BASKETBALL &AME  THAT STUpENTS
CAjf ATTENP, if THEV CAN AFFORP IT.
AN EQQ FROM
THIS THING
Announcing no. 30. Madden
ALEC TESTA
Collegiate life is well known for its
tradition. Every fall there is
Homecoming and every spring there
is a festival. But here at ol' State U.
we have another tradition that comes
with every basketball season — the
argument over the need for an on
campus arena.
Generally, little strength is
garnered for this movement among
the students and staff, but it has been
learned that this group has limited
clout. It has been observed that
change is only carried out by the
Bulldog Foundation and related
groups of Boosters.
CSUF is the biggest and most successful athletic organization in the
valley and doubles as an institution of
higher" education. There are also
several other colleges near by that
could serve to this role. It is obvious
that it is then more important to make
advances in athletics and that
academla will fend for itself through a
series of tax cuts and fee raises.
•to light of this evidence, 1 feel that
I have tbe definitive answer to this
struggle for an on campus arena in
which our basketball teem can play.
The solution is quite obvious and
economical because tbe needed
building already exists. All that is
needed is tbe simple restructuring of
our new library. ,
Just think of the Henry Madden
Fiddhouse. Once all tbe bothersome
books are removed, only a few major
constructive changes will need to be
made — and the arena will be centrally located near the Bucket I imagine
that an arrangement could be made
with the athletic department to store
all the unnecessary books to tbe gym
until tbey can be sdd — tbe revenue
being used for tbe development of this
project
It is necessary for students to examine thdr priorities. Which is more
impressive, a 10,000 seat arena or one
of the best libraries in tbe system? I
know that to 30 years I'll be telling my
boy about tbe virtues of tbe good guys
to red (Bulldogs) and not about tbe
fun I had doing research papers. After
all what is college if it isn't to make
memories. Another obvious advantage is all me great bands that could
be attracted for Vintage Deys.
There is one snag to this proposal
— those Inhabitants of tbe Thomas'
Administration building are intensely.
dedicated to education. Dr. Harold1
Haak would prefer to see students-
graduating BBaMM Cum Laude than*
first team All American — a rather
non-progressive point of view to tiu>
If students ad quickly and con-1
struction bids are accepted, the*
library might be converted to time to
boat tbe 1985 NCAA regionals. And-
once the Henry Madden Fiddhouse i»:
opened, think of tbe possibilities -"
big time pro wrestling to tbe College?
Union, Roller Derby to tbe Residents'.
Dining Hall and Naval Battles In a-
Flooded Football Stadium.
You know, I think it's strange that
while teams represent the school, and
we Use students make up tbe school,
tbe privilege of attending basketball
games is ransomed over our heads by
tbe members of tbe community, fs.
We've paid tbe ransom for the
baseball stadium, why not an indoor
golf course?
We thbak Mr. Testa Is a BskersfteM s*r
type, but we knew he swills beer dally
Aram replies
Struggling with the Saroyan mythos
Photo by Rhoda Nalhan
Aram Saroyan phoned the Insight office last week and requested an airing of his side of the family life he shared with his sister. Lucy, and his late
father, Pulitzer Prize winning playrtght William Saroyan. Insight had
previously run a front-page story on the reactions of Aram and Lucy to their
father's will and to their father In general. That piece was picked up by the
UPI wire, and ran verbatim In the Fresno Bee and almost verbatim tn the
Saa Francisco Chronicle. We at Insight were pleased with the response, and
are more than happy to provide Aram Saroyan with a forum tn which to air
his views on this subject.
What follows Is what Aram Saroyan sent us.
I gd the telephone call on a morning to late June. It was from a Law office somewhere — it sounded like a
long-distance call, but I never made
certain of that — and the man who
spoke to me was making an inquiry on
behalf of a lawyer, who no doubt had
more pressing, first-person business
somewhere else. It waa an Inquiry
about a play of my late father's — the
sort of call I gd from time to time
now. I referred him to tbe attorney for
the William Saroyan Foundation. As
tbe call was concluding, the man,
whose   vocal   inflection   sounded
possibly Armenian, mentioned that be
had Just read my piece on my father
in    the   July    issue   Of    California
magazine. My interest picked up considerably. I hadn't seen the magazine
yd; be had gotten an early copy by
subscription.
"It's very Interesting," he told
me. Did I imagine he was hedging on
a straight-forward compliment here?
"Yes," I said. I knew it was interesting myself.
He laughed, L
Then be added: "The title is 'Daddy Dearest.' "
My breathing did a sort ot somersault that made me grateful I was on
the phone and nd facing the man. It
took me a moment to restore a
breathing pattern that would allow
me to speak again.
" 'Daddy Dearest?' " I asked, as
levelly as possible.
"Yes," he said. "It's very interesting."
•Til bri," I said, emboldened by
the shock.
He laughed again. We never gd
beyond that word — interesting. Now
that I think about it, though, he wasn't
the worst sort of person in the world to
break the news that you have added a
tiny item to the luggage ot that
swiftest and most indefatigable
traveller ot our time, mass media.
"Daddy Dearest" ... I see.
Not altogether unexpectedly,
Fresno, whereto reside apparently a
number d California readers and
where there are certainly more than a
number d William Saroyan fans, took
the article personally. There was an
editorial to the Fresno Bee denouncing me. The local columnist hit tbe
ceiling. There were several Armenians on the television Evening News
talking about the bad boy I was for
writing the piece. There were also
many distraught letters to the editor
in tbe Bee.
First a Fresno TV news team was
going to fly up to the San Francisco
Bay Area to Interview me on camera.
On second thought, they dedded to do
it over the phone. We had a
preliminary interview during which I
detected more than an edge d hostility in tbe female reporter's line d
questioning. My father's name Is on a
very large building in tbe downtown
Arts Center to Fresno. The article, excerpted from my book, Last Rites:
The Death of William Saroyan. portrayed my father as a person d mortal failings. However, at the seme
time all d this was happening, other
people were phoning and writing me
that they found the article compassionate and moving. (The title adde, I
thought tbe editors d California bad
done an excellent Job d excerpting
By the time I did the interview
that was taped for broadcast, I bad
decided to take a gentle tack. I would
tread softly and even apoiogetkally. I
realized, after all, that these people
loved my father and, upset by the unfortunate title California had given
interview, a man, went about:
less fiercely than the woman had —
but there was still an edge to his voice.
He told me that a Id d people were
accusing me d capitalizing on my
father's famous name, d writing the
book for money. Had I?
I said a few things about the book
that were meant to be indirect replies
to that question. I had written it to a
white beat. I had never bdore had a
book happen like this one. It had been
as dose to being an involuntary reflex
as I could imagine writing a book ever
could be. It had been written in three
weeks.
Had I written it for money, the
reporter wanted to know again. I sensed that he was under a certain
pressure to ask that question a second
time; that the force d community
sentiment was looming behind him. It
was his final question.
" No, "I. answered. I didn't say
anything more.
The truth, d course, was less simple. For tbe first 10 years d the 20 I've
been a published writer, I wrote mostly poetry. Then, after marrying and
starting a family, I branched out into
prose. I wrote an autobiographical
novel about tbe 60s which I imagined
was going to make a financial killing.
My father had told me again and
again over the years that If I wrote a
novel, it would establish me. So, at
last, I took his advice and wrote one.
Then, for the following eight months, I
tried to gd either an agent or a
publisher for it. Though many who
read tbe book seemed to genuinely
like it, I was told repeatedly that
publishers Just weren't interested to
the 1960s anymore. It was the spring
d 1973.1 had a wife and a 2-and-a-half-
year-old daughter. And that fell we
bad our second daughter. And still
there was nobody wbo wanted my
book.
I fell back on my poetry and little-
press background — "Don't lock
down the ladder you stepped up,"
wrote the pod Louis Zukotsky - end
the book was eventually brought out
by a small outfit to tbe Berkshires. A
nice Job; but no money. However, my
father now read the book, and liked it.
"It's thdr fault" he told me over
Use phone, referring to the publishers
who had turned the manuscript down.
Then he gave me what still strikes me
- for the thoughtful room it leaves for
future aspiration — as the bed spot-
review a young writer could gd from j
an older writer: "It comes close to be- -
ing greet" be said d my book.
"Thanks,   Pop,"   I   replied.
Next I did a biography d a Beat
poet end helped along by tbe revival
d interest in tbe Beat Generation, this
one was published by a major New
York bouse. I was given a modest advance, but it was still tbe most money
I'd seen for a piece d writing. Then
tbe book came out. And tbe critics
bated it.
I had written the book as a kind of
stylistic tribute to Beat writing at the
same time that it told tbe story d tbe
Beet Generation. Unexpectedly,
however, it was reviewed the way
Kerouac's own books bad been
reviewed when they appeared to the
late 50s - with one exception I didn't
gd the review in the dally New York
Times that said this book was my
generation's The Sun Also Rises. I
really missed that one. But I got all of
the others - th* ones that were less
reviews than Tbey were character
I developed a cough. I told my
wife that tbe reviews didn't really affect me at all. But tbe cough wouldn't
go away. I reed about John Keats. He
had gotten such a roasting from the
critics on his first book that Shelley
said it had killed him. My wife told me
it was en honor to get such bad
reviews — that only very good artists
got them We talked about the way the
it i :
the beginning to France. It was me
and Kerouac, me and Keats, me end
Renoir. But my cough still wouldn't go
away. It occurred to me that I might
have tbe Initial symptoms d throat
cancer. Perhaps I did. But thanks to
the support ot my wife, my family and
friends, and d those readers who liked tbe book and wrote or told me so,
after several months, I seemed to
recover my balance — and the cough
gradually went away.
However, I made tbe decision nd
to do another book. I'd learned my
lesson. I didn't went to die. All I
wanted was to make a living. Hookup
screenwriting It was e new bell
game. Ld my friends scoff and accuse me d selling out; I'd cry ell the
way to tbe bank. I would stay young
while they grew prematurely crotchety, guarding their dignity and integri
ty, yd committed to nothing so much
as dispiriting poverty. But I was going, i
to bare a life. Tbe first script was.;
written to a breezy two months. One;
draft »% \ \t
And only one problem. It wasn't'
in tbe end, a very commercial script.-
Tbe next script—was different lb:
was a good idea, but it wasn't an easy |
script to write. At times, in fad, it;
seemed impossible. I did one draft.*
Then another. And then another after
that It's now in its eighth draft. And ■
it's been optioned, but nd yd bought.'.
I've made a discovery. Screenwriting .
can be gruesomely hard work, and un- .
til a movie that one has written is;;
made, one Is nd likely to be paid a Id '
d money for the work.
It was shortly after I'd fi
the fifth draft of the screenplay ti
got a call from my sister, Lucy, Idling
me that my father, from whom I'd"
been estranged for the previous three- •
and-a-half years, was dying ot cancer.;-
And the next day 1 gd another call
from Lucy, now to Fresno, reporting .
through her tears that my father'.
didn't want to see her — or me.
Around  10 days  bdore, after:
finishing the fifth draft of the script, I
happened to have started a diary —
more or less to take up the slack each
day now that I was off any writing
assignment. With Lucy's second call,
the diary turned into a marathon Journal which I wrote eight, 10, and 13
hours a day as my father was dying. •'
Since I had been told to no uncertain.;
terms that he didn't want to see me,.,
writing the Journal became tbe means',
by which I tried to deal with tbe fact"
that he was dying without being abfeN
to know that reality at first-hand.       sj
The initial entries after Lucy's
call were written to anger. Suddenly,.,
for the tint time to my life, I was ,
allowing myself to fed the depths d';,
my own frustration as the son at a '-
famous man whom I knew to be quite' ■
different from his public legend. As I ■,
wrote these first entries, I svoo't deny ;
that visions d a six-figure book con- _
tract danced in my heed (over toward '
tbe ride, as it were). After all, I was
telling a story that the world didn't I
know about a celebrity; indeed it even :
crossed my mind that this might be -:
another Mommie Dearest.
But as the days went by, my mood'.
changed, and so did tbe book.  It
' ar to me.oncel had vented B
that there were good and '
See Sareyatt. page i