Correspondence
Correspondence OVERBEARING OSHA I APPLAUD MATT LABASH on his insightful article "Hooked on Ergonomics" (Feb. 28). There is one point that is clear about OSHA's proposed ergonomics rule: It will be...
...DOUG LOWE Yuma, AZ PUBESCENT EAR CANDY MARK GAUVREAU JUDGE'S article was political ideology masquerading as music criticism ("The End of Woodstock," Feb...
...With what many (including, notably, Alan Greenspan) consider to be an overheated economy, the greater risk to steady growth would come from an irresponsibly large tax cut that led to higher interest rates (with or without inflation...
...True enough...
...That reduces the quantity of federal securities in circulation, which Frum decries...
...OSHA calculated one hour of time for management to become familiar with the rule...
...Consequently, nothing forces them to say no, and nothing forces them to set priorities on programs...
...There is one point that is clear about OSHA's proposed ergonomics rule: It will be the costliest government job mandate since the founding of the United States...
...In both cases, when benefit payments come to exceed tax revenues, federal securities held in the trust will be sold to make up the shortfall...
...Fields: The Art of Comedy," Feb...
...The goal of regulatory agencies is to gain power incrementally over the lives of the citizenry and the pursuits of private enterprise...
...In his effort to promote religion and prove his thesis that some of the more vulgar elements of rock are on the wane, Judge ends up championing some of the most insipid, adolescent trends in popular music today...
...By ignoring abundant sources of credible, objective, empirical data from firms that have already implemented ergonomic programs, OSHA has exposed the public to capricious, arbitrary rule-making...
...Ironically, without federal intervention, the problem has improved on its own, as Labash reported...
...After careful dissection of OSHA cost-benefit analysis, we found that the agency made innumerable errors, omissions, and unsupported assumptions...
...The fact that interest on the national debt accounts for over 25 percent of federal income tax revenues should be troubling to anyone who would like to see lower tax rates...
...Treasury...
...Correction of just seven of the major OSHA errors could result in up to $100 billion in additional annual costs to employers—not the $4.2 billion OSHA has claimed...
...But whatever deflationary pressures are created by taking interest-bearing monetary surrogates out of circulation (via debt repayment) can instantly be remedied by circulating additional non-interest-bearing "securities," i.e., money itself...
...has almost doubled since 1980 (going from 33 percent to 64 percent), and that as a percentage of GDP it now stands well above where it was in 1960...
...But he doesn't mention that federal debt, as a percentage of GDI...
...Yes, "Overtaxing Americans [leading to sluggish economic growth, or worse] to repay the national debt will actually lower the capacity of the United States to honor its commitment to Social Security...
...OSHA, quite simply, has not done its homework on the issue...
...Frum devotes much of his article to the unhappy, deflationary aftermath of paying off the national debt in 1835...
...Either the Republican party miraculously finds its courage, or it lets it die with Ronald Reagan...
...There are two advantages of running a current account balance/surplus so that the current Social Security surpluses can be used to buy federal securities from the public: (1) The future national debt will be smaller than otherwise...
...however, as Labash noted, the regulatory and guidance text that OSHA published is over 300 pages...
...Frum is a little too cavalier in dismissing the proposition that paying down the national debt will "bolster the country's ability to pay [future Social Security] obligations...
...He notes how our national debt went from being larger than our GDP at the end of World War II to being only half that proportion in 1960...
...SCOTT G. BULLOCK Washington, DC FIELDS'S GIFT I CANNOT FATHOM HOW Paul Cantor can call The Bank Dick W.C...
...The Founders knew of government's tendency to expand...
...2) If the Treasury is still running a surplus come the time that the trust fund runs into a deficit, reductions in general tax rates at that time (to eliminate the general accounts surplus) can be used to offset whatever Social Security tax increases were deemed appropriate (in lieu of a benefits decrease...
...And since governments produce no wealth they must seize it to grow and prosper...
...Congress really has no ceiling under which all the budget trade-offs have to be made...
...This is a war and—make no mistake about it—the other side uses the EPA, OSHA, and the IRS to throw roadblocks in the way of capitalism...
...OSHA claims that their program will reduce the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders by half, but their data are derived from studies of programs supervised by professional "ergonomists...
...As it is now, since we have so much debt and so many people tolerate it, it's easy to incur a little more...
...Democrats argue over how to spend the surplus made possible by prosperity and existing tax rates...
...No trials have been done on shop man-agers—those who will have direct responsibility for identifying and fixing ergonomic hazards in the workplace (the same people OSHA thinks can read regulatory text at the rate of Superman...
...Granted, Treasury bills perform some of the same functions as cash...
...Fields's "masterpiece" ("W.C...
...Well, it's because these adolescent acts (or, shall we say, their producers) churn out supposedly wholesome dance music...
...To portray the Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, and 'N Sync as the rightful heirs of the Afro-American medium in American music is as laughable as it is insulting...
...Just because President Clinton has dema-gogued this issue in pursuit of his big-government agenda doesn't mean there's not an element of truth underlying what he is saying...
...RONALD E. BIRD Chief Economist Employment Policy Foundation Washington, DC CONGRATULATIONS TO MATT LABASH on a well-written and would-be funny article (were it not true) about OSHA and their new lease on life, ergonomic safety...
...W. BURKE Montpelier, VT...
...The electronic, pre-programmed dance beats of these pre-teen acts are the antithesis of genuine swing...
...But, in Judge's world, I suppose we should not be concerned about the quality of music per se, so long as current popular acts further his thesis about cultural trends...
...Both conceptually and politically, of all economic challenges, deflation is probably the most trivial to overcome (which is why it is so rare...
...The purported agenda, be it safety or clean air, is merely cover for the seizure of power...
...But there seems to be little risk of "overtaxing...
...Republicans argue over how much to cut taxes...
...Hasn't Cantor ever seen It's A Gift, Fields's 1934 film...
...Even assuming a rapid reading rate of 110 words/minute (a fast rate of comprehension for regulatory material), it would take 15 hours to read the material...
...GEORGE COMPTON Alpine, UT IT WOULD BE VALUABLE for David Frum to address the political discipline that might arise from paying off the debt and then making it very hard for Congress to adopt an unbalanced budget...
...If the federal current account is in "deficit," the Social Security trust buys its securities from the U.S...
...One particularly egregious error we found concerned the amount of time it will take managers and others to implement the regulations...
...Thus, familiarization costs alone could be as high as $3.3 billion—not the $200 million OSHA calculated for its estimate...
...Now, back to the connection between the national debt and the long-run solvency of Social Security...
...Of course, he was a Democrat...
...Unfortunately, too many citizens buy into the ruse...
...If Judge's favorite acts spent half as much time honing their musical skills in the woodshed as with their fashion designers and image consultants, then maybe their music would be something more than the pubescent ear candy it is...
...What Judge ignores is that the best Afro-American music—jazz—moves your feet to dance as it ignites your mind with the most sophisticated melodies, harmonies, and rhythm produced on this continent...
...Another problem with OSHA's analysis is that it assumes laypersons act in the same manner as government experts...
...When the trust fund is depleted, Social Security taxes must be raised, benefits cut, or Treasury transfers or borrowing on behalf of Social Security must be undertaken...
...No presidential candidate is talking about raising taxes to repay the debt...
...It is a much more subtle—and therefore stronger—presentation of Fieldsian humor...
...Smaller debt service should translate to lower future tax rates...
...Continued voluntary efforts by employers will cut the yearly number of cases in half over the next 10 years, according to our analysis...
...OSHA should withdraw the proposed standard, reexamine its data, consider non-regulatory solutions, and, if it then determines regulation is still needed, design one that is cost-effective...
...The bond of trust between government and the people it governs becomes eroded when government regulators do not present intellectually honest explanations and accurate assessments of the economic consequences associated with their proposals...
...What is Judge's evidence for his argument...
...With smaller taxes required for general Treasury purposes, any increase in tax rates or federal borrowing to support future Social Security needs will be less onerous...
...Those sales will be to the public if the current account is balanced or in a deficit, and to the Treasury if the current account is then running a surplus...
...NATHAN SAX New Providence, NJ Defining Debt Down It seems that David Frum has bought into the Wall Street Journal's "lower-taxes-at-any-cost" philosophy ("Learning to Love the National Debt," Feb...
...As Stanley Crouch reminds us, mastery of Afro-American music demands serious study...
...Also, it is not specifically—as Cantor contends—the "American Dream" that is being debunked in Fields's work, but rather it is the aspirations and foibles of the lower-middle-class world Fields came from and was never able, really, to escape—the world of the shopkeepers, club men, small-time merchants (like his father), and ne'er-do-wells of the mostly immigrant neighborhoods of his youth...
...It has become clear that, if we are to regain our liberties in commerce, it cannot be done piecemeal...
...If the current account is in balance or a surplus, the trust will buy securities from the public...
...My public administration finance professor from 30 years ago argued with me that the national debt is different from other forms of debt in that it's not bad and it never has to be paid off...
...The comedic effect of It's A Gift is arrived at through means much less heavy-handed than those employed in The Bank Dick...
...Frum also writes that "what has always mattered most is not the size of the debt in dollar amounts, but the size of the debt relative to the country's ability to pay...
...Here's that element: By law, Social Security surpluses must be used to buy federal securities...
...Doesn't he give economists and central bankers credit for having learned something in the ensuing 165 years...
Vol. 5 • March 2000 • No. 25
