ML19322D116
| ML19322D116 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 11/28/1979 |
| From: | Esser G AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED |
| To: | Harold Denton Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19322D115 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 8002080549 | |
| Download: ML19322D116 (7) | |
Text
'
November 28, 1979
\\
}
O naroid a. Denton, Director Nuclear Reactor Regulation Office 1717 11 Street, N. W.
Washington, D. C.
20555
Dear Mr. Denton:
On November 5, the NRC imposed a freeze on construction permits and operating licenses for nuclear power plants.
Another thrust at energy independence for the United States.
I feel that this action was extremely ill-timed and ill-advised in view of our country's continuing dependence on unreliable energy sources in the Mideast, and on the report of the Presidential Com-mission.
Even the legions of regulators in Washington, D.
C., should realize that we are pursuing a course that can lead us only to the status of a second class power.
Very truly yours, Te ser 6650 Windwood Lane Beaumont, Texas 77706 GE/dt Enclosure (1)
P. S.
Thought you might be interested in the enclosed article by Jim Cook.
O' k\\
8002080 5 #1 7
I
_2_
Mr. Harold R. Denton, Director Nuclear Regulatory Commission 1717 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.
20555
T ON THE FAILURE OF THE GOVERNMENT By Jim Cook The time has now come in the evolution of this great nation that free men may openly question the future of liberty, prosperity, and domestic tranquility.
We have overwhelmingly in this country conceded the general wel-fare of our civilization to centralized government.
Every manner of problem, discomfort and national inequity has been so ceded.
The question is not whether the intentions of those who populate government are aimed at the public good.
Their every utterance would seem to verify this compassion.
The question is rather, that in attempting to liquidate the varied plagues of mankind have we erected a federal dinosaur with terminal consequences for American well being?
High minded political objectives, government programs, directives, planning, and expenditures must all be analyzed purely in terms of results.
What are these results?
A combination of altruism and pork barrel has spawned budget deficits and fiscal irresponsiblity.
Twin evils of inflation and unemployment grind inexorably towards record levels.
Intervention and regulation destroy capital and reduce productivity.
The social welfare system seems to aggravate unrest, crime and racial hatreds.
The warnings of classical economists appear sound.
When the state involves itself in the affairs of man more problems are created that are solved.
The larger the degree of government intervention, the greater the problems.
The government is failing.
Not the people, not the market, not the educational system, not the institutions, and not capitalism, but the statist gover: ment bureaucracy.
The ominous threats of economic blight, runaway inflation, depression and social upheaval wait in the wings to inevitably conclude the great era of government problem solving.
- This, because government involvement, judged solely by the record, brings about every increasing levels of failure.
Page 2 ON THE FAILURE OF THE GOVERNMENT Despite these apparent shortcomings this generation has seemed more than ever, intent on ignoring the warnings of the philosphers of freedom as respects the limitiations of government.
By attempting to. achieve justice and promote the general welfare through a monolithic state, we have constructed and staffed our own Trojan horse within America.
Government has interjected itself into the money and credit system to the extent it monopolizes both.
The state provides para-meters for the Federal Reserve and issues money through the Treasury.
The value of the dollar depends on the policies of the state.
Perhaps the most significant monetary manipulation of this century has been the gradual removal of gold and silver from our money.
I believe this is contrary to the intent of those who founded our democracy.
The judgement and record of history have been somber as respects fiat (paper) money.
Invariably paper money with no intrinsic support becomes worthless.
Without the constraits of gold and silver, the government readily expands the volume of money.
What are the results of a chronic and reckless increase in the quantity of dollars?
Record levels of inflation haunt us.
Thrift and savings have shaq)1y reduced in rewards.
Fiscal rot devours the dollar.
The world's greatest currency, once as good as gold, multiplies extravagantly and rushes towards a final depository, the waste basket.
The government's money is failing.
Seventy years ago the unemployment rate bumped along at roughly I percent.
Since then the government has established a minimum wage, unemployment compensation and labor union legislation.
It has stimulated the economy, introduced job programs, make-work projects l
and retraining schemes.
Its main emphasis has been on creating jobs.
f Yet, unemployment now hovers between 7 percent and 8 percent.
This says nothing of the scores of hard core unemployed who languish l
~Pa'ge 3 ON THE FAILURE OF THE GOVERNMENT miserably at the government welfare trough.
Truly the government is failing.
Today every major industry and labor union contributes funds, maintains lobbyists, wheedles and promotes for special government favor and protection.
This is the natural consequence of intervention and regulation.
Competition is nullified, influence is glorified, monopoly and manipulation become commonplace.
The interests of consumers are trampled by government bedfellows.
This perversion of power is simply another examp1'e of government failure.
In this decade v.i.rtually half of public's annual earnings are siphoned off into the government coffers.
More than a third of this is channeled back to a new majority who receives subsidies from the state.
Thus it is that the government insures its perpetuit.
The government feeds those who support it.
The government orchestrates the creation of a dependent class.
First the state spawns unemployment, then an inflation that oblierates savings and security.
A gradually weakened people trade their birth-right for assistance.
They spurn individualism and self reliance for subsidies.
What is the result of this bountiful government pipeline of money?
A switchblade in the guts!
Crime soars, morality suffers, dependence on booze and dope explodes, superfly pimps and junkies flourish, illegitimacy, violence, poor health and mental illness abound.
The government has opened a Pandora's box of evils.
There is no precedent for these events in this country.
Our grandfathers knew little of them.
The government.is failing.
Just as those it helps must fail.
The American Indian becomes the first victim.
Bound for extinction, awash in self pity and suicide, bor i beyond comprehension, he is smothered in welfare checks that insure is squalor.
The black man in 200 years of slavery and bigotry has taken longer strides than any white immigrant.
He has begun to earn his equality,
Page ON THE FAILURE OF THE GOVERNMENT even economic equality.
But he has been sabotaged by the government.
And even now he is falling back, the precious economic equality once within his grasp, slipping away.
Destroy initiative, kill incentive and inhibit self esteem.
Do you not see how your forefathers fought their way from Ellis Island and Hell's Kitchen?
Can you not see the necessity of work?
They had no dole and wanted none.
Work at any wage, for pennies, was better than slavery.
And now the dole has become a right.
With it must go hatred and bitterness towards a society th at improverishes self esteem.
Out of it '
bubble a wellspring of radicalism and polarity, bombers and must bolsheviks.
The signs of government failure surround us.
Inflation, recession, inner city d'ecay, public bankruptcy and the government's monumental attempt to buy its way out - massive budget deficits.
The bloated government feeds itself with half the earnings from the labor and toil of its millions.
Then it borrows and creates fresh funds to cover its further spending excesses.
The government squanders and destroys the very capital that built the great American Continent.
It places a mortgage on the future.
It destroys the funds that would otherwise build plants, finance equipment, create jobs, enhance living standards, erase poverty and end discrimination and racial in-justice.
This destruction is accomplished by po'liticians, economists, bureaucrats and social architects who insist they can plan and manipulate and force the improvement of us all.
In reality, they are willing to sacrifice freedom and the public well being for a further increase in their government sponsored power.
A failing government is a dangerous government.
James Madison described "the old trick of turning every contingency into a resource for accumulating force in the government."
With every crisis and failure the government does exactly that - it increases its power.
Page 5 ON THE FAILURE OF THE GOVERNMENT The economic problems of this nation are virtually unsolvable.
A solution requires limits on the government; limits the government I
won't accept.
In an economic crisis a desperate government will.do desperate things.
Once the government has destroyed the economy it may well destroy liberty in an attempt to rescue the economy.
This would be the ultimate failure.
Government has become a thing in itself.
It is no longer government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
It is government for the government.
And it is above all a profound failure.
e l
l
_