Word: leveller
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Packard believes, not unreasonably, that the excessive concentration of wealth among a cadre of megamillionaires is worse than immoral; it is dangerous to the good health of capitalism. His proposed cures are fairly familiar -- and unlikely to be enacted: for example, taxing net worth above a certain level (say, $25 million) and reforming the rules on trusts that allow billions to escape fair taxation...
...each fiercely cold-shouldered the other. It was Mikhail Gorbachev who stepped up overtures to his populous and powerful neighbor three years ago. In a 1986 speech in Vladivostok, the Soviet leader offered to create "an atmosphere of good-neighborliness," and to do so "any time and at any level." Soon after, Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping said he would meet with Gorbachev, provided that the Kremlin resolve three specific issues: border tensions, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea. Moscow began moving on all three, and last December Qian showed up in the Soviet capital. Shevardnadze...
...regional level, the advantages of Sino-Soviet detente are already evident. The ten-year Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea appears near an end. Following Moscow's example, India has started to mend its frayed relations with China...
...Canada, where the temperature in many cities plunged as low as -40 degrees F. The worst snowstorm in Edmonton since 1885 brought the city to a virtual standstill. In Calgary 100,000 grade-school children were told to stay home when the wind-chill factor reached -67 degrees, a level at which exposed flesh freezes in less than a minute...
...more practical level, the Nunn plan seems to defeat its own purposes. Though it aims to give value to community work, it will in reality make community work less dignified. As lower income students are coerced into community service, they will perform with a detrimental resentment, much like the convict who receives a term of 90 hours of community work as penalty...