European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 22, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes Friday november 22, 1985 columns & comments Ellen Goodman commercial depicts Star wars in simplistic terms until i saw the commercial i had no idea thai Star wars was so simple even a kindergarten child could understand it. I thought you needed physics when All you really needed was Crayola. The regular Box of Crayola not even the giant size. The 30-Sccond television spot brought to me Courtesy of the coalition for the strategic defense initiative changed All that. It opened with Crayon -. Figures of mom dad. Child and spot. I think it was spot though it might have been a Small Brown horse without a mane hard to Tell there was also a Black Crayola House and a yellow Crayola Sun. While the school piano tinkled in the background a Little girl narrated her wonderful talc of 10 Crayola in search of National Security. I asked my daddy what this Star wars stuff is All about she began. He said right now we can t protect ourselves from nuclear weapons and that s Why the president wants to build the peace  As she reported this a while line appeared in a huge arc thai covered the House family horse dog and even the Sun. This was the Crayola peace shield. The Young narrator went on to explain How it would Stop missiles in outer space so they could t hit our  on Cue Little Brown Crayola missiles bumped up against the White Crayola shield and were destroyed. The girl concluded then nobody could win a War and if nobody could win a War there s no reason to Start  with that the shield turned into a rain Bow and even the Sun began to smile. Frankly. I always liked colouring not to mention Story hour at school. This ale had just enough truth in it to be especially appealing. Creating a peace shield in t really much harder Sfer All then drawing a Gigantic White line around the Sun. The real Sun. In fact instead of financing the Pentagon s efforts at Star wars 1 think we should commission the artist Christo to wrap the United states the Way he wrapped that Island in Florida. It would be cheaper. What is so artistic about the pro ski spot in t just the colouring. It s the timing. The 30-Sccond commercial James Kilpatrick try 3ac\4x St miss Les com nuels a. Sw&3l of. Hurt us so a dewy ser my daddy Norto astar wars cd 5yr there s a Pat of Geft in that i Ntow for us. My Dou a is smart. Realty know How to turn a. Buck. Has already been seen in Washington and he conservative coalition aired it nationally during the pc Summit Days. I is just a Small child sized part of the Campaign to convince the american Public that the president is right that a Star wars defense is too important to bargain away for something silly like nuclear arms reduction. After All it does t matter How Many nuclear bombs there Are if we All have our White Crayola Handy. This in t the first cartoon rendition of Star  the network news shows ski working with astonishing regularity. They continually offer some artist s concept of an in coming missile being blown up. The artist never misses. The visuals contribute o the notion that ski not Only exists it docs of but that it can work. Nor is this the Only commercial. The defense depart ment has carefully orchestrated a series of tests under the strategic defense initiative organization. They Are really what Mit physicist Kosta Tsipis Calls an unchallenged advertising  one by one we have been re Ald to Over so successful reports of engineering tests Complete with dra Matic Biow pm up film footage straight out of a video game. They purport to show a new defensive technology in the making. But in fact As Tsipis and his colleague Philip Morison who have Analysed the tests report they were mainly simulations of Progress orchestrated and widely reported for Public  in fairness the Reagan administration needs All the Star wars ads it can Muster. The Public does t share the president s consuming commitment. We re main convinced that any new . Weapons program will be inevitably matched by the soviets in a never ending arms race. In the latest Abc Washington Post poll 74 percent of us said we would Trade the fantasy of ski for a substantial reduction in nuclear arms. We can count on a beefed up advertising Campaign to sell Star wars perhaps a few More spill y tests from the defense department certainly a spate of these 30-Sccond sagas from the coalition. We re off to never no Var land. Clap if you believe in while Crayola peace Shields. R c Waim Nolon poll writer group the Young Nof Fheo of Are truly the nation s poor a few weeks ago during debate Over the Defi Cit reduction Bill Oklahoma s sen. David born offered a modest proposal. He moved to limit future Cost of living adjustments for social Security Reti Rees to 3 percent even if the rate of inflation should be 4 or 5 percent. For a retired couple getting $700 a month in  m sorry this would mean a monthly increase of $21 instead of $28 or $35. I wrote a column stoutly defending born s amendment. Under an Avalanche of mail the roof fell in. A gentleman in Ashland ky., wrote that my column was baloney and a gentlewoman in Peabody mass., called it Humbug. Those were the nicest things that were said. Two common themes ran through the letters we paid for this insurance and you can t take it from us. Second social Security benefits arc not really government spending because benefits Are paid from a Trust fund that is separate and apart from the general fund. Myths die hard. Social Security is not insurance in the Ordinary sense of the word. There is no Trust fund As the term is generally understood. When will these elementary truths be accepted social Security is a simple and almost immediate Transfer of income from those who Are working to those who Are not working. The taxes that were paid by most of today s Reti Rees Long ago were expended. It is the Young and Middle age workers who Are supporting the old folks. Many of my correspondents gave me details on their household budgets How much for food clothing Upkeep of a car drugs from the pharmacy. They arc pitifully hard up. Of the 36 million retirees an estimated 5.4 million rely soley on their social Security checks. Their Indig nation is understandable. But who Are the poor in America today it s not the old folks it s the Young. After meeting necessities the typical oldster has disposable income of about $4,100 a year. The worker Between 25 and 34has about $1,900. For the next 30 or 40 years these workers will be hit and hit and hit with heavy social Security taxes to pay benefits to their parents and grandpa rents. 6 � Many retirees May have lost track of what they paid and they May not be fully aware of what lies in store for their working sons and daughters. In 1937, the first year that social Security taxes were collected the total maximum lax paid by the individual worker was precisely $30 1 percent of wages up to $3,000. Twenty years later the maximum was $94.50 2.25 percent of wages up to $4,200. By 1977, the maximum tax had grown to $965.25. This year it is $2,791. Next year it will be $3,003. Suppose a worker began paying the maximum tax in 1937 and continued to pay the maximum tax through 1985. He retires at 65 on Jan. 1, 1986. Over his 48 years in the labor Force he has paid a Little less than $25,000 in taxes. His employer Hai matched the sum. He will now draw Down benefits of $8,868 a year. He will recover his own taxes in three years the combined taxes in six years. Even if you calculate compound interest this Reti ree has a Good thing going. And his life expectancy is to reach 82 17 years on Down the line. Where do you think the Money will have to come from to keep up the gentlemen s pension it can to come from the taxes he and his employer have paid. Those dollars will be Long gone. The funding can come a y ram the wages of people who will be working in2000. This famous ephemeral Trust fund is solvent for the moment. More Money is coming into the Treasury than is being paid out in monthly benefits but Ihil comfortable Prospect will demand Ever increasing taxes on people who have jobs. More than half our wage earners now pay More in social Security taxes count ing the employer s share than they pay in Federal in come tax. If my year old grandson is to get retirement benefits equal to mine when he retires a combined tax rate of 37 percent to 41 percent of payroll will be required in the workers who will be supporting him. Meanwhile my grandson will have paid in a bundle. 1 know that the readers who denounced me and sen. Boren Are enduring hard times. No one doubts it. But save a Little compassion for their kids. They have Tough Row to Hoe. 1c Una Vericat Pru Syndicate