A wrenching solution

...Granted, one morning a year would suffice to turn the profits calculated above, and that morning is probably much less time than the poor now spend moving through welfare and unemployment bureaucracies...

...He had purchased the tools and the tool box for $92.44 at stores around Washington, but the Navy had paid a contractor on its "qualified suppliers" list $10,168.56 for a comparable kit to be used in repairing flight simulators...

...He might not even need the original loan, since he would need only 450 to buy the alien wrench, which he could then pass on for a gross profit of $9,608.55...

...Each of the three poor people mentioned earlier would support his or her own family and begin to pay federal income taxes ranging from $318 to $348, the average tax bill coming to $330 annually...

...Take the head of a family of four working full time at one of those many jobs Mr...

...ROBERT o. RICHARDSON (Robert O. Richardson is a lecturer in English at North Adams State College in Massachusetts, presently at work on his first novel...

...Babysitting, serving fast food, or teaching in a private secondary school, the poor person earns $8,424 annually...

...As profits from contracts raise her income above $10,000, she becomes ineligible for the credit and liable for $318 income tax, a net gain for the government of $402...

...Last May, Representative Berkley Bedell of Iowa dumped the contents of a tool box on the floor of the House of Representatives...

...Bedell's by reminding us that a strong military establishment is necessary in a hostile and increasingly dangerous world...

...Weinberger yields only inch by inch on his budget requirements, that the poor are even more with us than they have been for sixteen years, and the budget deficit continues to grow...

...If four million households contained one new defense contractor apiece, tax revenues could increase by $1.32 billion, not counting the effect of fewer claims for earned income credit...

...Some working poor might be tempted to give Commonweal: 198 up their jobs to devote more time to their new businesses, leaving us without enough desperate people to do the tedious, unpleasant jobs for wages that exert no inflationary pressures...

...But surely that would be little to ask in return for a shrinking deficit, economic growth, and guaranteed national security...

...Not once 5 April 1985: 197 has such criticism led to the transfer of monies from military to welfare budgets...

...For projects of such magnitude and sophistication, we must continue to rely on manufacturers already included in the "qualified suppliers" list...

...The answer must be a resounding "No...

...Ask a defense contractor...

...No matter what the advantages of this plan, some skeptics will no doubt repeat a familiar argument: Can we put the lives of our military men and women, and ultimately the security of the free world, at risk by letting such people supply the Pentagon with shoddy, even defective, and obviously overpriced equipment...

...Even after expenses (e.g., bus fare, packaging material, and shipping costs) of $19.48, and after paying back principal and interest of $ 110, she realizes a profit of $10,266.56, enough to lift her and her family above the poverty level of $10,178, even if she completes these or comparable transactions only once a year...

...We can hardly expect people with such backgrounds to overcharge the government $8 million on a helicopter contract, much less $57 million for aircraft engines, or $84 million for radar-controlled tank cannons, especially when there are some doubts about the cannon's performance...

...It has only provoked hostility...

...All we need to do is help poor people become defense contractors...

...Pentagon budget A WRENCHING SOLUTION THE POOR & SUPPLY-SIDE DEFENSE WHILE PRESIDENT Reagan continues to stare down the deficit until the rising tide of economic growth lifts all ships, many around him have joined the unseemly scramble to protect their favorite federally funded programs...

...So it is hardly surprising that Mr...

...Investing $5.07 for three drillsets for Mr...

...Moreover, this solution could encourage cooperation between two rivals for federal funds...

...That would raise his income to $10,466.55, almost enough to tempt him to take a cab from home to the hardware store and back...

...Happily, the problem itself suggests a solution that would reduce (and possibly eliminate) poverty, increase tax revenues, and allow the Defense Department to go on spending money as usual instead of having to reform...

...Some might become greedy and try to comer the defense market in alien wrenches...

...Here is how it might work: With a short-term, low-interest loan of $100, a poor person heading a family of four could follow Mr...

...Occasionally, someone with interests in military budgets will dismiss critics as ' 'biting Cap Weinberger on the ankle," tantamount to being "against motherhood...

...Pentagon officials invariably respond to demonstrations like Mr...

...However daunting they may seem at first, the language and the system create handsome enough incentives to encourage the novice to master them, and they are probably no more complex than scoring a perfect bowling game or calculating the return on a Quinella...

...Worst among these are critics who have consistently deplored the administration's sharp cuts in benefits to the poor and enormous increases in military spending...

...Finally, some will say we ought not to encourage the poor in habits of idle dependency...

...Not everyone, of course, would need to earn all her income from defense contracts...

...We should bear in mind that six of the ten largest defense contractors have paid no federal income taxes since 1981...

...Bedell's example and purchase the components of the flight simulator repair kit and two diodes, which she would sell to the Navy for $10,388.56...

...Reagan sees advertised in the "Help Wanted" columns of our newspapers...

...We should all remember, as President Reagan reminded representatives of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund just last year, that "too often, the demands of prosperity and security are viewed as competitors when, in fact, they are complementary, natural, and necessary allies...

...But with a minimum of training, many of our ablest poor could probably learn the apparently standardized accounting procedure which transforms a $7 sledge hammer into a $436 aerospace tool by adding charges for packaging, program support/administration, program management, secretarial costs, engineering support, quality control, operations program management, program planning, manufacturing project engineering, facilities capital cost of money, a fee or two here and there, and various overheads for handling (19.8 percent), engineering (110 percent), and manufacturing (110 percent...

...Many have even taken to pointing fingers at other instances of waste and folly which have so far escaped budget cutters...

...Bedell's repair kit, the beleaguered breadwinner could earn a profit of $1,791.93, increase family income to $10,215.93, and, like the other two new entrepreneurs, join the ranks of taxpaying Americans...

...Not content to wonder aloud about the morality of reducing inflation and income tax rates at the expense of the poor and unemployed, these critics seize on details of military purchases: quarter-inch alien wrenches for $9,609, plastic protective cups for the legs of flight navigators' stools at $900, or diodes generally available for 40 fetching $110 in the Pentagon marketplace...

...Or a poor fellow could specialize in alien wrenches, with a modest sideline in sledge hammers, provided that the Air Force were willing to pay him the prices it was willing to pay General Dynamics before a Senate committee made such a fuss in public...

...Still more than $500 short of the poverty level, he could further invest $14 in two sledge hammers which would bring in an additional $872, or $858 in profit...

...The working poor person mentioned in the third example above would ordinarily be eligible for a credit of $197 against a tax liability (standard deduction) of $ 113, a gain for her of $84...

...Few poor people have either the technical education or the production facilities to deliver malfunctioning missile systems...