SAT., APRIL 18, 1331
TKECAJttUSATiXU-lS
Isaiah Tidwell
Almost every day we see another article in the
newspaper talking about interest rates and their
effect upon the economy. Understanding interest rates
can help us see how we as consumers are affected by
the changing rates. v
"Interest" is the charge for the
use of borrowed money or goods
purchased on credit and is usually
stated in a percentage. For exam-
pie, u you Dorrow $iuuu tor a lull
year at an interest rate of 15
percent with payment due at the
end ot tne year, the interest will
be $150. . ..
Banks, like retailers, buy a
Droduct from BUDDliers for regale
to customers. In the case of banks, the product is
money. Banks try to set an interest rate which cov
ers costs and results in a margin of profit for provid
ing the service.
.'Banks obtain the money they loan to customers
from several sources, including savings and check
. ing deposits, certificates of deposit from corporations
John W. Hinckley, Jr., allegedly fired six shots from
a .22 caliber handgun at President Ronald Reagan,
wounding Reagan and three other men on March 30. . .
.and the first thing we learned about Hinckley was that
"he has been under treatment by a psychiatrist."
In the society in which we live today, that would
answer all of the questions. Just "another crazy one!"
A person does not have to participate in any acts of
violence to suffer from the stigma of mental illness. The
stigma transcends the prejudice society bears against
race and relr :on. It is worse than discrimination against
the physically disabled. It is wcw. even, than the isola
tion of lepers.
The mass discrimination against the mentally ill is an
unmatched, perpetuating genocide. The prejudice
against the mentally ill is man against himself, literally.
The crazy one, it seems almost by international edict,
can never do anything worthwhile again even when he is
no longer crazy. He is often shunned by his own family
in a kind of mutually imposed sentence of hereditary
disgrace.
Finally, he is turned even against himself, refusing to
acknowledge until it is too late that he may need
psychiatric help because that admission even in a ra-
INTEREST RATES
m n
By Isaiah Tidwell
'and individuals, funds purchased from other banks
and from the interest earned on other loans made by
the bank. The amount of interest banks pay for
these funds varies from one source toahother. Some
of the rates change each day, based on the total de
mand and total supply. One rule of thumb is that
rates are usually lower when there is an abundance
of money ancl higher when money is in short supply.
Each bank'sets the rate it charges for various con
sumer loans. The rate is determined by several fac
tors, including the bank's cost of funds, the level of
risk associated with the loan, competition, and in
some cases, state-imposed usury ceilings on rates.
While rates may vary slightly at the different
banks, competition among the banks keeps the rates
generally about the same from one institution to the
other. Interest rates may vary depending upon the
cost of servicing the loan. -
Banks in some states, like North Carolina, are
limited in how much they can charge by usury laws
which set ceilings on interest rates for consumer
loans. When the bank's cost of funds exceeds the
amount that can be charged for a loan, the bank is
faced with a loss instead of a profit. When this hap-
Happiness Through Health
Mental Illness Stigma
Hardest To Overcome
Parti
By Otto McClarrin
tional mind would be a personal weakness.
We used to put our mentally disturbed in large public
boxes called Bedlam and deprive them of everything ex
cept the right to breathe a little oxygen and drink a little
fluid and ingest a little protein.
Before that we put them on ships of fools and let
them drift .from port to port until they were all dead.
Now, thanks to drugs and progressive legislation, they
art being released from modern bedlams and returned
to their communities where their biological freedoms
have been broadened, but where the rest of their rights
are restricted almost as narrowly as before.
Many former patients live in decaying walk-up
rooms, in old hotels and homes converted to board and
care facilities where there is little board and less care.
The larger the city, the worse the problem. In many
large cities former patients are left to wander the streets,
easy prey. In Chicago, an old man strayed from his nur
sing home and was made to strip naked and stand on his
head by neighborhood hoodlums.
Another man sits on the curb almost every day pluck
ing cobwebs from himself when there are no spiders.
Another directs traffic with a broom. Day in, day out,
precisely at 6 a.m., a woman walks into a coffee shop,
pens, some banks are forced to limit their losses by
cutting back the amount of money available for con
sumer loans. Instead, these dollars may be loaned to
corporations or other banks at more profitable rates
since usury laws in North Carolina do not apply to
this type of lending. t
One of the rates most frequently mentioned in the
newspaper is the prime rate. Banks use the prime
rate as the interest rate basis for setting the rates
they charge for short-term commercial loans. Mg
consumer loans have a fixed rate for the term of tne
loan and are not so directly affected by the prime
rate or other fluctuating rates. -
Whenever you need'a loan, it is smart to shop
around and find the best value available considering
the downpayment, the term of the loan, and, of
course, the interest rate on the loan. Some banks
offer preferred rates to customers who maintain
other accounts with them.
Isaiah Tidwell, a banker fortune yean, is vice president and
general loan administration officer at Wachovia Bank and Trust
Company in Winston-Salem.
buys coffee and a sweet roll and then shouts obscenities.
A man, not yet thirty, was doing so well in a
Philadelphia board and care home that he was given a
pass to visit his family in Chester Pa. The first (and last)
thing he did when he got home was kill himself. Suicide
is twenty times more prevalent among schizophrenics
than it is with the rest of the population.
Why do we discriminate against the mentally ill?
There are as many reasons as there are people who
discriminate. It is a little like asking why is there racial
hatred? Or why have Jews and blacks been haunted by
unwarranted bias for centuries?
Except that there is fear involved in our hatred of the
mentally ill. There is real fear that deranged persons
may physically hurt us.
And there is the subtle fear that they somehow will
touch us with their "taint," thai we will have to lie
down with them one -day and take on their
schizophrenia and that then, finally, they will be us.
There are a million reasons for this prejudice, just as
there are for all of the others, and in the end there is no
reason at all.
Nest week: Part II - Discrimination Against the Men
tally III.
Getting Smart
The Poor Are Not The Budget Fat
By Walter L. Smart
This nation lias been engaged in a major struggle to
eliminate hunger and malnutrition in this country for
over fifteen years. Seemingly, the Reagan Administra
tion and some other Congressmen apparently want to
halt the progress made thus far.
Amazingly, the Reagan Administration has proposed
a twenty per cent cut in food stamps and a 35 per cent
reduction in child nutrition programs. These programs
are being cut on the premise that the programs are help
ing others than those for whom they are intended.
The Census Bureau released information on the reci
pients of food stamps. It reveals: "About 5.9 million
U.S. households received food stamps in 1979. Median
income of this group was $5,300 (compared to $16,530
for all U.S. households) and 3.5 million had an annual
income
p.,rthor tho Vmnrt states 'that "the average annual
value of food stamps received by all Households was
$810." In layman's terms that means that, on the
average, these families received $15.59 per week for
food.
The child nutrition programs and other related nutri
tion programs have made the difference in seeing large
numbers of children who were malnourished children
Executive Director
United Neighborhood Centers of America
with swollen bellies, dull eyes and poorly healing
wounds to seeing children who are now strong,
healthy and aware.
Why, then, does the new Administration want to br
ing back a state of malnutrition? Simply through a
mistaken belief that the government should not be in the
business of providing assistance to the hungry, and
through a felt need to save more money.
The government hopes to get public opinion on its
side by exploiting the sick rumors about families and in
dividuals who use food stamps. We've all heard so
meone "in the back room" griping about people buying
steak with food stamps "while I can barely afford ham
burger with my hard-earned money." As in other
welfare, programs efforts will be made to make us
believe that those receiving help are not among the truly
Business In The Black
Walk To Work
Budget Bumps Blacks Off Bus
By Charles E. Belle
u-i whh in Anrii 1979. believe that those receiving h
r vri '...U'lW averaifr annual"" VTMS.W rtOtTO say mat C
Spare change. Has anybody got about $50 billion to
loan the President? Ronald Reagan recently projected a
cut in the federal budget for around that amount.
: Anyone interested in finding a job in government or be
ing trained for a job by the government is in big trouble.
Fact is, budget cuts proposed by the President might put
people on the streets working in bread lines since public
transportation and food stamp programs are to be sliced
by the Reagan knife.
David Stockman is in charge of preparing the execu
tion for Mr. Reagan. Stockman's expertise apparently is
not. too far above California, Judge Pwight.,Uark:sk
say that nd reform Is possible; Con
ceivably, the large number of college students who
receive food stamps by claiming independence from
their families might survive without this benefit.
The answer to cutting the fat off the budget does not
lie with the poor; it lies with the preparation of a sound
economic budget which does not penalize the weakest
among us, the poor.
number two man in the State Department. Does Mr.
Stockman realize the three billion dollars he "lost" in
preparing his initial tax cut plans is equal to cuts in
medicaid to be made by him for the next three years?
Probably not. People who are the innocent seldom see
similarities between their conservative actions and
human consequences.
Defense. spending proposals by President Reagan are
Aft
My
0
eras
"I'm a Personal Banker at Wachovia,
and one of the most satisfying aspects of
my job is that I can give my customers the
kind of personal attention that'sjacking at
so many institutions.
"First, my customers know the
telephone, rmmber where I can be reached
during business hours. They know I have
the training and experience to help them
with a complete range of banking needs,
from opening a checking account to
arranging a loan. And finally, they know
I have the authority to make decisions. ,
"If that sounds like the kind of
banking relationship you'd like, callme
and let's talk about it. Or stop by and see
me this week."
Bank&Trust
Member F. D.I. C
iw- -'I
LiA":V:"!"ri;i': i Hi Ui -J':'.
ftlillHiii
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4
Marion Reddin
Main Office
201 W. Main Street
Durham. 683-5247
The Ivorian Miracle
Economic
Success In The
Ivory Coast
NEW YORK The
"Ivorian Miracle," the
Ivory Coast's success
story of Third World
economics, is examined by
Black Enterprise magazine
in its April issue.
The miracle purportedly
lies in the "conservative,
hon-polemical investment
oriented state-capitalist
economic approach" of
Houphouet-Boigny
(Ou-fwai Bwa-nye), presi
dent of this West African
nation. Since gaining its
independence twenty years
ago, the Ivory Coast has
become one of black
Africa's most affluent and
stable countries as a result
of its status as the world's
largest producer and ex
porter of cocoa 22 per
cent of the world market.
Houphouet-Boigny em
phasized the development
of the nation's
agriculture, especially
cocoa and coffee, during a
time when there was little
of either cash crop in his
country and other African
nations were stressing in
dustrialization, reports
Black Enterprise.
Today, the Ivory Coast
can boast of having the
highest rate of economic
growth in black Africa for
the last eighteen years
seven per cent annually. In
addition, it has the most
equitable distribution of
personal annual income
$1,200 of any other
African country.
Not without its pro
blems, notes Black Enter
prise, economists are
predicting a slow
economic growth rate of
two per cent for the Ivory
Coast this year. Western
consumer nations reluc
tance to pay higher prices
for Third World goods
and the restrictive export
quota agreement that
(Continued On Page 16)
to jump fifty per cent while food, education, job train
ing and even transportation support will be slashed by
almost forty per cent by 1984.
Destroying family life and old folks Medicare is not
what the American people hoped for with the election of
a new president. Putting more people under the poverty
line places a greater danger to the community at large.
Teen-age unemployment remains unconsciously high
and needs help to bring it into reason.
Even the sensuous sophisticated San Francisco is suc
cumbing to a growing "unsafe society" due to the
unemployed and untrained beginning a life of crime. A
fifty per tbht 'btact,'Amertcan young adult unemploy
ment contributes all across the country to a galloping
national crime rate. In San Francisco last year, a shock
ing statistic revealed that 64 of the violent crimes in
San Francisco are committed by juveniles under the age
of eighteen.
In the meantime, industry has indicated its lack of
charitableness by failing to have given to the established
arts. The Business Committee for the Arts says about
one per cent of the nation's corporations account for
more than half the total corporate support for the arts.
President Reagan wants a fifty per cent cut in the
poets and writers ragged pocketbooks. But at least ar
tists are used to walking, playing; begging or boasting.
Black Americans and other low income workers are go
ing to have to walk to work too if they are public
transportation users. Unless people are prepared to pay
more for the bus or subways some change in the mode
of making it to work will be required because of the
President's proposed phase out of transit subsidies.
Federal subsidies now support sixteen per cent of the
cost of public transportation. Take state aid and local
assistance out and a fifty per cent increase in bus fares is
not impossible.
Coping
Happy Golden Years
By Dr. Charles W. Faulkner
As we get older, our abilities tend to lose their sharp
ness and undergo a gradual decline. This point is signifi
cant because many people have been conditioned to
believe that you go to bed one evening feeling vigorous
and wake up the next morning feeling old, withered and
without energy.
The aging process works differently for various peo
ple. I know of a 67-year-old man who runs fifteen miles
each morning and can outrun most men over the age of
thirty. All of you must know of at least one "elderly"
person who can match wits and thinking ability with
anyone. 1
The fact is that the human mind and body do not
deteriorate suddenly and rapidly as most of us think.
Let's look at some ways to confront the conditions of
aging:
1. Accept the reality. You have heard the expression:
"You'll get old if you live long enough." This is a
fact that must be realized and accepted. No matter how
hard we try, the day will, indeed, arrive when we cannot
do the things that we previously did. When we prepare
ourselves for this time in our lives, we are better able to
accept it when it occurs.
2. Plan for the future by: A. Recognizing that each
person lives for only a finite period of time. Determine
the probable years left for you and make them the best
years possible; B. Physical emergencies happen to near
ly everyone and should be planned for. So, when illness
occurs and hospitalization is necessitated, arrangements
will not be agonizingly difficult' from a physical and
financial point of view; C. Utilize one's financial
resources to benefit one's self during advancing age.
Your finances should be devoted to your happiness and
contentment rather than an overwhelming and
sacrificial concern for one's relatives; D. Prepare for the
independent care of one's self so as to refrain from
becoming overly dependent upon one's friends and
family for financial assistance and health care; E. Abili
ty to modify one's situation should conditions and
needs change.
Proper planning and preparation for those goKlon
(Continued On Page 16