The Art of Deception; J.C. Sparks

THE ART OF DECEPTION THE ART OF DECEPTION is entertaining when performed by athletes and magicians. A baseball pitcher throws his fast ball, curve, and change-up with the same motion in order to deceive the batter. The T-quarterback pretends to hand off the football to each of several running backs so as to confuse and mislead the defense. The basketball player fakes a shot hoping to draw the defensive player off balance so he can dribble around him. The magician cleverly entices his audience into watching the wrong action '\vhile the coup de grace occurs unobserved. Unfortunately, the use of deception is not limited to the field of entertainment, for there are despicable per sons who often dupe unsuspecting victims out of their life savings. Many examples could be cited every day from the nation's newspapers. There is a far more dangerous game of deception go ing on in our country, however, which not only threatens our life savings but our freedom as well.

How are we fooled? Mr. Sparks is a businessman in Canton, Ohio. 373 374 JOHN C. SPARKS One of the cleverest deceptive temptations ever de veloped is the federal grants-in-aid' matching funds scheme, whereby the federal government encourages a perfectly normal and healthy community to desire an im provement of some sort for which it would rather not pay. For example, an expressway, a recreation center, a new water system, an addition to the hospital, urban renewal-the list is endless, and the community is en ticed to ask for federal money to pay a large part of the cost of the project. The civic leaders are urged to get their share for their community or others will consume it instead. "We're paying for it, so we might as well get our share." The people in Community A will be taxed just as much as the people in Community B, and if A does not accept federal aid, B and other communities like B will get A's share. One must look beyond the short run period of time, observe beyond the confines of his own community, and evaluate the results. in more than just the immediate dollars to find why this reasoning is faulty. The federal-aid modus operandi is skillfully de ceptive in covering up its true objectives. Let's look at the features of this kind of "trick play," because it really has everything working for it.

I t corrupts the opposition. How can one develop a better bit of strategy than to trick the star pitcher of the opposing team into pitching against his teammates? This scheme does just that, for it is directed at the civic leaders of the community-not only those who sincerely THE ART OF DECEPTION 375 want to see their city progress but often those who are the outspoken advocates of free enterprise. It is a sorry pic ture when the leading citizen, normally a sound indi vidualistic-thinking champion of freedom, falls for the federal grant scheme. He is corrupted quite effectively and his usefulness to the cause of free enterprise is not only lost to his ball team in the one case involved, but in all future opportunities to speak up for freedom. Can a man be an effective leader for honesty if he has dipped his hand into the cash till of his company? Can a man attract followers to the cause of fidelity if he is known to have been unfaithful to his wife? And so it is with the civic leader, the spokesman on behalf of free enter prise and limited government, who is never as effective in his support of the freedom cause after he has been seduced by "gifts" from Washington.

It undermines self-reliance. There is no better way to bring about failure of a third-grade arithmetic student than by doing his homework for him. There is no better way to lose the strength of healthy legs than by the con tinual use of crutches. To learn how to conquer adver sity, one must meet it. Local pride of community accom plishment surely does not follow in the wake of a suc cessful begging jaunt to Washington. We lose faith in ourselves to do what must be done by ourselves. In stead, we begin to believe there is an endless treasure in Washington-the political magician makes us see what he wants us to see, although we should know that it is nothing but a clever use of mirrors to perpetuate upon 376 JOHN C. SPARKS us an optical illusion using our own money. With con fidence and self-reliance gone, we become spineless pawns for whatever further manipulation the schemers have in mind.

It could lead to financial bankruptcy. The project de sired by the local community is almost always of a size or nature allegedly beyond the community's monetary re sources. The hospital needed as ascertained by the typi cal survey to bring the community up to someone's idea of standard, is usually much more than the community believes it can afford or is willing to buyout of its own funds. This is an obvious truth, for if it were otherwise, there would be less effective argument to seek outside assistance. The sum total of many projects all over the country, each well beyond the available funds, could spell financial bankruptcy. The cost of all projects in all communities must be paid for by the taxation of the people living in all of the communities throughout the nation-and if everyone is induced to buy more than good judgment would dictate, the total results flirt with financial disaster.

A family-father, mother, and three children-has pur chasing power limited to dad's salary and the savings ac count set aside for emergency use. Let us suppose each member of the family yearns to buy something more expensive than can be fit comfortably into the family budget. Susie wants a swimming pool. Mother wants a remodeling job in the kitchen with all new appliances. Dad wants a new car; and John wants to enroll next THE ART OF DECEPTION 377 fall at an expensive college. The bicycle the youngest boy wants is "small change" by comparison. Not one of the potential purchases alone would wreck the family's financial position. But together, it is a different story! Therefore, the $3,000 swimming pool will have to be eliminated in favor of a $75 membership at a nearby swimming club. The kitchen remodeling may have to be pared downward from the $5,000 estimate to $500 for a new refrigerator, the appliance which needs replace ment the most. The old car will be run one more year; and colleges will be carefully surveyed to find the most education for the money available. This is the way the members of the family must operate to remain solvent.

This is the way towns and cities as members of the na tional family must operate to remain solvent; and there is no better way than by each community acquiring only that which its citizens are willing and able to pay for. Advocates of government spending are not seeking sol vency, however, for they believe that government spend ing, deficit financing, and inflation create prosperity. Thus, their "trick play" offers bankruptcy on a glitter ing golden platter. It shortchanges the beneficiary. It is a fact that no gov ernment can give until it has first taken away. The funds from which a federal aid project is paid come from pri vate individuals and private companies all over the na tion. Since nearly all communities are regularly suc cumbing to the deceptive "get our share" scheme, this means that each community-for all practical purposes378 JOHN C. SPARKS does pay for whatever it receives from the Washington "pool." The joker, however, lies in the fact that the funds shrink by an alarming amount as they are collected by the federal bureaucrats; and they shrink again as they are administered and disbursed back to the com munities. It is uneconomical to have such a large per centage of the financial resources of the local commu nities s~cked away by these Washington parasites.

And this is not the only way the beneficiary is short changed. The price tag for the community project is erroneously believed to be an amount equal to only the local taxes collected for the project, rather than a price equal to the total of the local taxes collected plus the federal funds allocated. The expressway through the city, which may appear to be a bargain for two million dol lars of local funds, probably is a far cry from a bargain for the total cost of twenty million dollars. If the citi zens of the community had discerned the correct price tag, they may have wished to decline in .favor of local schools, improved street lighting, improved fire and police protection-as well as private investments in the expansions of local businesses, the latter being the vital seed corn for increased growth of true economic devel opment, without which little taxes could be collected in the first place.

The beneficiary (the local community) is shortchanged in two ways-by having its coins clipped while enroute to and from Washington, and by buying an item it would not have purchased had the full price tag been known.

THE ART OF DECEPTION 379 It urges prompt action. The "trick pla.y" of federal aid not only brings down corruption and probable finan cial bankruptcy on free enterprise, but has the further element of the urgency to do it now. The funds are available now, the community leaders are urged, but may no longer be available next year. It is not unusual to hear one local politician accuse another of failure to look after the interest of his community for not "getting our share" of federal funds for the airport or the down town re-development project. Unless we strive to improve our city (in this manner), we are told, the neighboring city will surpass us in growth-just another pressure to accelerate the whole scheme. It centralizes control. To control the operation of an automobile the driver has access to the steering wheel, the brake pedal, accelerator pedal, light switch, and other instruments controlling various operations. The lights are actually at the front and back ends of the car, but the driver controls them with a switch within arm's reach. The carburetor is next to the motor under the hood, but control is with a pedal easily reached by the driver's foot. All of this illustrates the ease of controlling the auto's operation at one central point by the driver any driver for that matter who sits in the driver's seat.

Grants-in-aid emanating from Washington have as a corollary the power t9 control. In the area of education, federal money will ultimately mean federal control-a tragic probability. But those advocates of federal aid to education assert there will be no exercise of control over 380 JOHN C. SPARKS education, conveniently forgetting that the control levers and switches will be in Washington nevertheless, ready to follow the bidding and command of the "driver" of the car-and the drivers can be easily changed. Do the headlights respond only to one particular driver, or do they respond to any driver who happens to be in the seat? Centralized control provides an easily accessible mechanism for the use of potentially tyrannous power. I t pays the interventionists' board and room. Those who fight on the side of individual freedom and limited govern ment often are restricted in both time and money which can be devoted to the cause. Not so with many interven tionists, for the money derived from shortchanging the tax funds enrou te to Washington and federal aid funds en route from Washington to a local beneficiary commu nity is used to provide board, room, clothing, shelter, and entertainment for the boys who created and now operate this clever racket. It is difficult to visualize a more cunning bit of legalized sleight-of-hand than to take money from a person-give part of it back-and live on the rest. Ironically, those from whom the tax monies were taken must come to Washington and beg for the return of a part of their own funds.

It breeds more intervention. One of the most convinc ing arguments for the expansion of federal aid schemes is the recital of the thousands of projects requested by thousands of cities and towns throughout the country from wealthy communities to relatively poor communiTHE ART OF DECEPTION 381 ties. They all need help, say the schemers. If each com munity had the character to pay for its own projects, and if no community would accept federal aid or grants of matching funds, the argument for aid would pale into insignificance. How could federal aid be needed if no one were to accept it? The variety of uses for which matching-fund grants are made gives the planners excel lent arguments to continue and to expand their decep tive plans to control the lives of individual Americans and the American communities. After all, they point out, large and small communities all over the nation find it necessary to seek federal aid as the only means to obtain their badly needed projects. Each community that succumbs to the temptation of a federal grant, unmis takably casts a resounding affirmative vote for more gov ernment intervention and control.

Unlike the football team's special trick play which must be used sparingly so as to retain the element of surprise, the trick play of federal grants-in-aid seems to work better the more it is used and the wider it is pub licized. There can be but one reason-the trap is baited with thousand-dollar bills blinding otherwise solid champions of free enterprise to the fact that their accep tance of the bait means to sell their souls, and ours, to the godless philosophy of compulsory collectivism. There you have a description of one of the most im portant key plays of the welfare state offense. It corrupts. It bankrupts. It undermines the confidence and faith of those who presumably believe in freedom. It keeps 382 JOHN C. SPARKS the planners in "board and room" by shortchanging local communities. It centralizes control for easy applica tion of tyrannical power and, lastly, breeds more of the same. The only element needed to complete the picture is the cooperation of the local communities-to stretch out their arms with upturned palms and "apply" for federal aid.

How one's own community will react to the bait temptingly held out by these slick masters of the art of deception, may well be the deciding factor in the out come of the battle for freedom.