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Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday July 1M0 the HERALD OUTLOOK is published each Saturday by he HALTON HILLS HERALD Home Newspaper of Halton Hills A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario L7G 3Z6 PUBLISHER K Robert MANAGING EDITOR Colin Gibson AD MANAGER Dan Taylor Second Class Mail Registered Number STAFF WRITERS Ben Lisa SPORTS EDITOR Rob Risk ACCOUNTING Jennie Inga Shier CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Joan ADVERTISING SALES Jeannine Valois Craig Teeter Roberts Kim PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Dave Hastings Robertson Wilson CIRCULATION Marie Shadboll Shopping around pays dividends TORONTO It pays to shop Take telephones for example Or com puters fax machines and printers My sister Elaine is starting a new business She has been looking for a twoline telephone She is also looking for a fax machine I am look ing for a portable computer printer and answering machine So I offered to shop for both of us Altogether this office equipment is worth thousands of dollars Armed with magczine stories about good equipment for home offices and small businesses I set out to find the best machines for the price The price varied far more than I had Im agined Elaine decided on the Panasonic Eatons is asking for this popular telephone Bell Canada wants Neither store had any in stock Undaunted I set off up Yonge Street In time came upon a small electronics store that sold for They had two left so I took them The Panasonic answering machine I wanted is at Eatons at Bell and at the elec tronics store Naturally I bought one SINKING FEELING Satisified with my purchases I went home and stretched out with The Sunday New York Times There in a twopage advertisement I read the bad new Manhattans St Photo is selling the Panasonic telephones for US Add the exchange rate the federal sales tax and duty on Japanese- made telephones and the price comes to about in Canadian funds So much for my bargain Alarmed I compared computers next One company a Georgia li quidator is selling Zenith 386 Laptop computers for 2595 US plus shipping Zenith products are manufactured in the United States so there is no duty on them Federal sales tax is 135 per cent and a U S dollar costs This brings the cost of the computer to about in Canadian funds Dianne pared with a price of or more in Canada But buying a computer by mail order seems risky so I compared another computer I had priced a Toshiba with a 20 megabyte hard drive with St Photo Curiously it was cheaper in Canada than it was in the United States Thats based on a price of roughly at Computerland Yet St Photo is charging a frac tion of what Computerland wants for an internal modem The Manhattan company is charging the equivalent of compared with Com- puterlands400 MOSTLY CHEAPER The same thing happened when I compared prices for printers and fax machines The Computer Fac tory in Manhattan beat Com- price for the Hewlett Packard LaserJet IIP printer but not by much The difference was about in Canadian funds The situation with fax machines is more complex because the model numbers differ in Canada and the United States Generally though faxes are cheaper in the United States than they are in Canada Someone in the market for new equipment would do well to shop both sides of the border If you can wait until the new goods and ser vices tax comes into effect next January all the better the tax on imported goods will drop from per cent to seven per cent The risk Is that the Canadian dollar will drop as well This would make US goods more expensive to buy 4 Poets I KNEW HIM BEST It could be quite a horror a riot These days are filled with grief The kids would plead for peace For a loved one gone to rest and quiet Of one who is still special It wasnt good for us for them To me who knew him best Now all is quiet for this 1 say Amen Anyone known to us AB Could tell we fought like hell Georgetown Yon didnt have to know us Not even very well Maybe yon Just met Kids Could see through every glare They wet their beds You may have turned away And mess with our heads For you didnt like to stare They scuff up their knees And never say please We got by though I wondered They wreck up the place And get food on their face Through each and every row They make huge demands Despite our many arguments And disobey all commands Did we love each other anyhow They drive us to drink And then over the brink Do not encourage any relation Of stopping their breath ship Or scaring them to death With dally fighting power We stop and reflect That makes people tired and sick On the places we wrecked And fearful by the boor Thestuffthatwedid When we were a kid Many disagreements are a thing The parents we hated to be For being outdated But they need not be hurtful And we think What the hell To that point where none agree Weve been there as well Pain not to be fooled with ByJB Not ally Acton CANADA KATE WENT UPA FOIL fEKENME ffclNTVESTEBDAt SUPPORT THE United States farmers get massive aid WASHINGTON Canadian farmers must be bewildered as they look south to see American politicians anxious to find money they can give away to their coun trys farmers The massive 1990 S Farm Bill which has been approved by the Senate agriculture committee goes to Congress sometime this month Its cost had been nudged up from an expected billion over five years to about billion Thats about million a year more than would be spent if Con gress had merely extended the cur rent farm bill and adjusted it for inflation That 1985 bill was credited with putting farmers back on their feet during the past five years primarily through large transfers of cash from the federal treasury Despite the financial crisis fac ing the the worlds largest debtor nation legislators barely hesitated before voting to continue transferring massive amounts of money to farmers at the tax payers expense Since the members of the com mittee who oversee the farm bill are from from states theres a powerful incentive to grab as much cash as they can get Many of them must have had dizzying thoughts about issuing press releases in their home districts boasting about how much more money they had obtained for their constituents DECEPTIVE However a vote by the Senate farm committee to approve the farm bill may be a deceptive indication of how much support there is for five more years of high subsidies Observers will be look ing for fireworks in Senate when the bill comes up for debate With President George Bushs reversal of his famous cam paign pledge Read my lips no new taxes the seriousness of the US budget deficit has hit home The Senate committee has already shown unusual reluctance to increase spending by defeating a proposed amendment by a Mon tana Democrat who wanted large increases in target prices the guaranteed minimum prices farmers get for their crops Even farmers who are benefiting are beginning to question the high level of subsidies says Con gressman Barney Frank a Massachusetts Democrat The public is no longer saying that as long as the money is being wasted in our district its OK he said One of the farm programs under attack is the US sugar policy which has been labelled by critics as super welfare that costs con sumers an estimated billion a year in higher sugar prices SWEET DEAL Its a sweet deal for sugar beet growers They are guaranteed a price of 21 cents a pound about nine cents higher than the current world price while the government restricts imports of lowcost sugar including imports from Canada Congressman Bill a Minnesota Republican who has joined the bill coalition calls the sugar program an abomination that hits shoppers while punishing poor countries such as the Dominican Republic which desperately needs the cash from sugar exports Under the U S dairy program the government guarantees that it will purchase farmers excess but ter despite the products declining popularity because of its high cholesterol Last year Washington bought million pounds of butter for million Millions of pounds of butter are stored around the coun try for two or three years until they are sold often at cutrate prices to school lunch programs or military bases Both programs would continue at present levels under the propos ed farm bill The proposed farm bill which is virtually a continuation of the generous bill is still not rich enough in the opinion of farmstate senators Democrats who believe high farm spending may make a difference in farmbelt elections vowing to press for higher sub sidies when the bill comes up for debate The thinking has been slightly different in the House of Represen tatives where the House commit tee passed its version of the farm bill with an estimated pricetag of billion By midMay the estimated cost of the bill had ballooned by about billion over the baseline figure of billion but severe cut ting by frugal members brought the cost down Fireworks are also guaranteed in the House when it comes up for debate but not from members who want higher subsidies An unusual alliance of urban liberals and rural conservatives has pledged to fight the bills provisions to increase rich farmers incomes and to sub sidize crops that they say should not be protected from the open market Write us a letter The Herald wants to hear from you If you have an opinion you want to express or a comment to make send us a letter or drop by the office Our address is Guelph St Georgetown Ont L7G 3Z6 AH letters must be signed Please include your address and telephone number for verification The Herald reserves the right to edit letters due to space limitations or libel