Daily Nebraskan Monday. December 6. 1982 .
Page 4
1
Employment drops;
economic reality
rears its ugly head
It promises to be a pretty bleak Christmas for about
12 million Americans. That's how many of us are out of
work this holiday season. The latest figure came out
Friday: 10.8 percent - another post-Depression record -of
the population is jobless.
The unemployment figure has been climbing all this
fall. After July and August unemployment rates of 9.8
percent, 10.1 percent of us were without jobs in
September and 10.4 percent were jobless in October.
As the rate has grown, it has cut into population
groups untouched during previous employment slumps.
Teen-agers and blacks aren't the only potential workers
not working; November's unemployment rolls included
"an increasing number of white-collar workers, according
to the United Press International.
Meanwhile, the sectors traditionally hit hardest by
unemployment continued to be hit in November: blue
collar unemployment increased from 15.9 percent in
October to 16.5 percent last month; teen-ager unemploy
ment climbed to 24.2 percnet; overall black unemploy
ment reached 20 percent and unemployment of black
teens hit 50.1 percent.
With these facts, one would think the Reagan admini
stration would pledge to do everything possible to get
Americans back to work. But that has not happened.
President Reagan said Friday in Bogota, Colombia,
that he would not support an emergency jobs program.
Reagan has consistently opposed a Democrat-backed job
creation proposal and apparently plans to continue his
opposition even though each month fewer and fewer
Americans go to work each day.
The president's continued opposition to a jobs program
is a political mistake, an economic mistake and a social
mistake.
It is a political error because it it gives unemployed
Americans the same ones who will be voting in the
1984 presidential election - the impression that their
president cares little about their plight.
It is an economic error because continued unemploy
ment means continued depression in consumer spending
and continued reliance' on unemployment benefit
programs.
And it is a social error because massive unemployment
has far-reaching pyschological reprecussions on unem
' ployed persons and, in turn, on the morale and .produc
tivity of the nation.
Yet, with these mistakes apparent, the president is
holding on to his pipedream - as he has since he took
office - that cutting taxes and the national deficit is all
that is needed to straighten out the economy.
Perhaps that was still valid as late as this summer.
But after five months of rising unemployment, it should
be obvious to Reagan and his advisers that the problem
is not going to take care of itself.
Thus far, the president has taken a small step toward
helping create jobs. He endorsed a 5 cent per gallon tax
on gasoline; the program will create 320,000 jobs and will
require dollars for repair of highways, bridges and urban
mass-transit systems.
The gas tax is not enough, though. Even if 320,000 are
employed under the program, more than 1 1 .5 million will
remain unemployed.
The Democrats in Congress are offering some job
options. In early November, the House majority leader,
James Wright of Texas, said the job program would come
in three parts:
- a public works plan to be used when unemployment
rises about 7 percent. This would provide federal dollars
to states and cities for repair of highways, railroads,
bridges and other public works.
- a job training program for the young and a retrain
ing program for older workers laid off from industrial
jobs with little hope of being rehired. This program would
alsoestablish a jobs bank to match available jobs and skills
in demand.
- a program of low interest loan guarantees to stimu
late private investment and revitalize industries. The loan
guarantees would be available to firms modernizing their
plants to become more competitive on the world market.
Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia
said the jobs programs wpuld cost, about $10 billion.
He said Democrats are going to push the program during
the current lame duck session of Congress.
If members of the Reagan circle don't like the Demo
crats job plans then they should introduce some of their
own. But perhaps first they must abandon their pride and
admit that some f ederal remedy is needed to ease unem
ployment. They have to realize that 12 million jobless
Americans won't just disappear.
; Editorial policy
Unsigned editorialsrepresent the opinion of the
fall 1982 Daily Nebraskan. They are written by this
semester's editor in chief, Patti Gallagher.
Other staff editors write one editorial in her
place each week. Those will carry the author's
name after the final sentence.
fttrMWCIWSMPUlfFliOM REMAN POODS
rprtn fes, tsa fWs
II
fmH I
12 million WW mti A MBJBi r
Letters
policy
The Daily Nebras
kan encourages brief
letters to the editor
from all readers and
interested others.
Letters will be se
lected for publication
on the basis of clarity,
originality, timeliness
and space available in
the newspaper.
Letters sent to the
newspaper for publi
cation become the
property of the Daily
Nebraskan and cannot
be returned.
Anonymous sub
missions will not be
considered for publi
cation, and requests
to withhold names
will be granted only
in exceptional circum
stances. Submit all material
to the Daily Nebras
kan, Room 34, Ne
braska Union, 1400 R
St., Lincoln, Neb.,
68588.
'Non-trads': There just isn't time
Lisa is in her mid-30s. She is recently divorced and
has custody of her two children, aged 3 and 6. She has
a part-time job as a sales clerk in a clothing store down
town, and on weekends she freelances as a graphic artist.
Karen is also in her 30s. She is single, shares an apart
ment with two other women and works the evening
shift as a ward secretary in one of the local hospitals.
jf Ma O'Gara
Lisa and Karen don't know each other but they have
something in common that makes them part of a small
but diverse group of people: They are "non-traditional"
students.
A non-traditional student is generally defined as an
undergraduate student who is older than age 25. Many
'"non-trads" are working on a second degree, but most
are either first-time or returning students. The number
of men and women in this older student category is about
equal. Some of the men are Vietnam Veterans taking ad
vantage of the financial aid offered through the GI Bill,
and many of the women are finishing an education they
abandoned after marrying and starting families.
Many non-traditional students attend only part time,
taking classes in the evening and working at full-time
jobs during the day. But some, Hke Lisa and Karen, are
full-time students. Although many "traditional" under
graduates hold down part-time jobs as well as carry
a full class load, most older students, especially those with
small children, have added burdens.
"My schedule has to run like clockwork or it doesn't
run at all," Lisa said. "I have to coordinate four time
tables every'day: my classes, my kids' classes, my work
and the babysitter. If one of those schedules gets screwed
up, they all do."
But Lisa's biggest gripe isn't with schedules' as much ,
as with the attitudes of her non-student friends.
"There's very little of what I'd call peer support'
for people like us. Friends who aren't students tend to
give up on you after awhile because you have to spend
so much of your free time studying instead of socializing
with them."
Had she ever attended one of the Non-Traditional
Student Association's weekly luncheons? Perhaps she
could meet some other students who share some of the
same problems. "I'd really like to, but there just isn't
time."
Time - or rather the lack of it - is a problem for
Karen, too. But for her, the hardest part about being a
non-traditional student is coping with what she describes
as a sort of bias against older students.
Continued on Page 6
Fregmamy, abortion wit
h facts
On Tuesday, the lawyers came bearing precedents
They arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to
argue, and argue they did. The question was whether a
city or state has the right to limit a woman's access to
abortion.
The briefs before the court originated in Missouri
Ohio and Virginia. But the decision, when it comes
will be-felt all across the country. There are more than
-
V"? Ellen Goodman
a dozen similar suits waiting in the wings, or the cham
bers, for the high court's opinion.
Three basic issues were put before the justices Can
a state or city rule that every second-trime ter abortion
must be done ,n a hospital? Can legislation prorubTt anj
teen-ager younger than 16 from getting an abortion
without the consent of a parent or judge? Can i?fo
a doctor to present a prescribed set of "facts".to a S
in the name of 'Informed consent?" P
The trio of concerns will be decided on constitutional
grounds where the states and cities' right to regulate
such things as medical procedures will be balanced with
the woman's right to have an abortion.
But the most interesting issue is the one labeled "in
formed consent." Four years ago, the law being reviewed
was dreamed up in Akron, Ohio, to force doctors to
present their patients with a series of "facts." It didn't
matter whether the doctors believed them or not. It
didn't matter whether the facts were accurate or not.
They were instructed to tell women, "the unborn
child is a human life from the moment of conception. . . "
and that abortion "is a major surgical procedure which
can result in serious complications including hemorrhage,
perforated uterus . . . sterility. ... and can result in severe
emotional disturbances."
Now this was a classic case of misinformed consent,
tarly abortions are not "major" surgical procedures by
any medical standard.
Still, the more I think about it, the more I find some
thing perversely appealing in the idea of legislating infor
mation. What if we decided that no citizen should consent to
sex without being properly informed about the risks?
We might end up supporting something called sex edu
cation. The same people who want pregnant women to
know about the development of the fetus might help
tell pre-pregnant women how not to develop one.
Continued on Page 5