Word: important
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...come out against passing on the price break to American consumers. Lower prices, they agree, will lead to higher consumption, so that OPEC would, in Safire's words, "be back in the saddle again." Instead, says the Times, we should "build on the exporters' current weakness" with an oil import tax. Safire and Buckley enthusiastically concur, arguing for a tax to "smash the price fixers and supply-controllers," and to "tear OPEC apart." An oil import tax, these foes of Big Oil contend, would keep domestic prices high, thus maintaining present trends towards conservation and increased domestic production. This would...
...needlessly perpetuating the cruel exigencies that conservation has forced on us. High prices for gas and heating fuel place an extraordinary burden on the poor, whose "conservation" efforts frequently mean choosing food over heat in the winter. The depressing economic influence of a $15-a-barrel tax on oil imports, according to Safire's own estimate, would cost us one million jobs. Liberal supporters of an oil import tax suggest that revenues from the tax be channelled to the poor, but, given the current political climate, it would be naive to expect such an allocation. The money would probably...
...predominantly Christian section of the city. Last week, after negotiations with the government of President Gemayel, the militia agreed to make way for the army. The agreement also called for the government to take over the "Fifth Basin," an illegal port where the militiamen have long collected import duties. In fact, even after the army takes over the Fifth Basin, the militia may continue to collect revenues there. The militiamen may have agreed to cooperate with the government, but they were not yet ready to put themselves out of business...
...SHORT-SIGHTED greed-motivated demands for protectionism must be added another ugly element: xenophobia. A sign in front of a UAW headquarters reads "U.S. and Canadian vehicles only. Please park imports elsewhere." For some reason, Canadian cars (which we import in large numbers) don't count as imports, but the Japanese cars do. Mondale reflects this attitude when he asks, "What do we want our kids to do? Sweep up around Japanese computers and spend a lifetime serving McDonald's hamburgers...
...been able to solve the manufacturing and financial equations of small cars. Design problems helped doom the Corvair in the 1960s and the Vega in the 1970s. The rear-wheel-drive Chevette, introduced in 1975, is obsolete and overdue for replacement. As a stopgap, GM has been planning to import 200,000 subcompacts made by Isuzu starting next year, and there are tentative plans to bring in up to 80,000 smaller minicars from Suzuki Motor Co. So far, the giant automaker has not announced any change in its intentions...