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Most of us have room to put four couples. Why keep for big houses going when we could all live in one, at least through the nine brutal months that Canadians must suffer? We oldsters could hunch, board up the rambling barns, for the winter, at least, and save thousands of dollars. We all have furnaces and electric stoves and washers and dryers and television sets and cars We have a number of friends our age, all of them living in big houses, burning tons of oil and millions of kilowatts. Our children are grown up and gone. But we keep these great barns going so that. "The kids will have a place to come home to." Sentimental slob. Basically, by hunching, I mean a drawingâ€"together of families, or any other units, pooling resources, putting their backs to the wind, and surviving. Now, I haven‘t developed this into a doctoral thesis, and there are some rough edges to be polished, but T‘ll give you the general outline. Well, I think, and my wife disagrees with me, so it‘s probably a good idea, that it‘s time for families to "hunch" against the bitter winds of a depressionâ€"inflation period. You know what you do when you‘re out in a winter blizzard. You hunch your shoulders and try to make your entire body smaller so that the cold won‘t make you lose an appendage or two. In baseball it‘s three strikes, and you‘re out. Parliament should accept the same rule for budget makers who can‘t handle the job. ‘ In his still unpassed November budget, the Finance Minister created unbelievable problems for businesses both large and small. While he has been forced to accept a few changes, the guts of that battered document remain. High interest rates and inflation, of course, remain our major problems. Yet there was no freeze on government hiring, or real cutbacks in federal departmental budgets, even though Ottawa will spend $20 billion more than it takes in this year. With more than 1.2 million people unemployed, it‘s shameful that MacEachen didn‘t have the wit to realize jobs aren‘t being created because his own policies have destroyed incentive and created horrendous uncertainty. This was MacEachen‘s third budget. Once 'again the man failed to deal with our economic problem. More important, MacEachen failed to.upvnly admit his own policies are in part responsible for a lack of investor confidence, both inside and outside the country. It‘s true, Finance Minister Allan MacEachen finally got around to «pplying restraint on public sector salaries. And there were a few minor programs to assist small business, the housing and construction industries, along with minor changes in the controversial Foreign Investment Review Act, which has caused such consternation among U.S. investors. In addition, some cash was allocated to job creation. Yet MacEachen surprisingly opted for an effective income tax increase at a time when Canadians are hurting badly from the recession. He also didn‘t inform the country that unemployment insurance premiums paid by employees and employers will rise dramatically, perhaps by as much as 50 percent. Second Classy Mail Registration Number 3940 The budget that was supposed to deal with the nation‘s deteriorating economy was a dud. PAGE 6 â€" waTERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, J1ULY 14, 1982 Thoughts on ‘hunching‘ MacEachen strikes out published every Wednesday gy Fairway Press, > e \/“‘\ a division of Kitchenerâ€"Watertoo Record Ltd., owner VE (JUT AN (DEA OF QW%( 225 Fairway Rd S., Kitchener, Ont. fJAFTER MACKENZIE KIMGr‘s / Waredoo Lhrom e ottice is located on 210 fioor of the U Wo sports buidiig opposite Wateriou Square Parking on King Street ur in Wateriou Square Uper Monday to Friday 4 00 a m to 5 00 p m address eorrespondence to Waterioo office 92 hing St South, Waterloo. Ont . telephone 886 2830 Most of us have some sort of gift or talent. A couple are gourmet cooks. One or two are excellent sewers (as in to sew). Some are firstâ€"class mechanics or woodâ€" crafters, or general handymen. Another couple are entertainers. Among us we have three or four languages, a knowledge of drafting and physics and typing and bookâ€"keeping," and various other useful odds and sods. Why not pool our talents and our TV sets? We could probably build an ark if we had to, and yours truly could write the news release about it, while encouraging the hewers of wood and drawers of water. I had to admit that Jack‘s moroseness and Jill‘s ebullience would be hard to take seven days a week; that Jim‘s pomposity and Jane‘s 60â€" minute monologues might be a bit hard on the nerves; that George‘s noseâ€"picking and Mabel‘s sherryâ€"sipping might wear a bit. And, of course, we‘d have to have eight television sets, so that each could watch his own. But, dammit. it could work. When she just sat there, gently shaking her head, I fell back to my second line ‘"What about families, then? Why can‘t we hunch? Youf brother and his sonâ€"inlaw As I said, 1 sounded out my wife on the idea, quite enthusiastically. â€"She merely commented that 1‘d go to jail for life for being an accessory before the fact of murder. She didn‘t spell it out. Publisher Mangger Editor established 1854 Paul Winkler Bill Karges Karls Wheeler RELORD OF TWENTY TWO years WwHaAT DO yOu THINKZAFTeC THAT ... wiro Knows! < The women could abjure cosmeties and save a _ mint. She, my wife, a great seamstress, could "run up" clothes for eÂ¥ erybody. The grandboys could grow up with a real sense of family: great grandad. grandad. uncle, grannie, mother, instead of the nomad life they lead now We could all grow beards, except the women, and save on razor blades and shaving cream. We could dig_ up the backyard and put in a garden. We could buy a huge freezer, hijack a calf and a pig, shoot a deer and live on the fatta the lan‘ Why couldn‘t we hunch at our place, 1 pursued. Our son could mow the lawn and shovel the walk, which cost me about $300 a year. My daughter could get a job as a waitress, steal food from the kitchen, and she‘d have no outlay for babyâ€"sitters. ‘"‘Why don‘t we just hunch, the way families used to do back in the depression, with everyone kicking in what he can, and nobody going on the dole or missing a meal?" are out of work, along with your son and your daughter, and your father is retired and fragile. I‘m the only one in the family working. ‘"Yet your daughter is paying $450 a month for an apartment, your son dearâ€" knowsâ€"what for another, and your Dad is clinging to a house that burns about $1,300 in oil, not to mention taxes and stuff. BILL SMILEY Then I played trump. ‘"And we‘d save about $1,500 Â¥ year on longâ€"distance phone calis." Wer eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. I think hunching is going to sweep the country. How about you? We could put in wood stoves, cut down all the maples and oaks on the property and laugh at the oil companies and that latest leech, Consumers‘ Gas. We could build a still and save a thousand a year. The possibilities are endless. But she still sat shaking her head the way you do whonélening to someone senile. The Chronicle is proud of its tradition of accuracy and fair play, but we do acknowledge room for human error. We welcome complaints or criticism of news, opinions or advertising and hope we ean resolve all complaints our selves. Complaints that can‘t becre solved should be addressed to the Ontario Press Council, 151 Slater St., Suite 708. Oftawa, Ont. KIP 5H3 Press Council