A dear friend and fellow arts historian Oscar Finretek sent me a copy of the letter below, which was  featured in the New York Times 1986.  How I miss the good old days.

To the Editor:

The same week the White House signed a ”revenue-neutral” tax-reform bill, the Treasury announced a record Federal budget deficit of $220 billion for fiscal year 1986 – alongside our record national debt of $2.3 trillion.

The final straw? Jan. 1, all members of Congress and the Federal bureaucracy, military and civilian, will get a 3 percent pay raise!

I propose that each year the Federal budget deficit exceeds $50 billion that all members of Congress and key White House officials receive a 5 percent pay cut! SID TAYLOR Research Dir., Natl. Taxpayers Union Washington, Oct. 27,1986

Easels have an important role in creating artworks and masterpieces. If you have the right easel, you can be very focused and comfortable with the painting or an artwork that you are working on. Who wants to paint on an unstable canvas, anyway? Another benefit of using an easel is that you can stand or sit while painting. You can even leave your artwork on the easel and continue working on it without the fear of damaging the artwork.

So, are you ready to purchase your first easels? Buying the right easels will be much easier when you consider the following tips:

1. Get the type of easel based on the kind of artwork you’re planning to do or what you’re usually making. There are different kinds of easels, so make sure that the right easel is the one that can hold the kind of canvas you’re about to use. Table top easels see here  are perfect for small scale canvases and not recommended for large-scale canvases. Heavy easels are generally more stable, so it is very suitable for vigorous painting.

2. Choose an easel for the medium you are using. Watercolor and water-based paintings are best held by easels that hold canvasses in a horizontal manner. On the other hand, oil-based paintings must be held by vertical easels so that less dust would be collected when you hung them on the easels. Meanwhile, acrylic paintings can be held by either a horizontal or a vertical easel because they dry up faster than paintings made from water or oil mediums, thus they have the least tendency to collect visible dust.
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3. Compare the prices of the easels available. The right easel for you does not have to be expensive. You can purchase an easel that’s cheaper than another easel but will work best for the type of artwork you’ll do and the kind of medium you are about to use. Here’s a fact on the prices of easels: display easels and sketching easels are the cheapest, while studio easels (especially the large- scale ones) are the most expensive. Beginning artists will benefit from table top easels (if you prefer sitting when painting) or sketching easels (if you want to stand) because they are least expensive and will save you money that you can use to buy other art supplies. Floor-standing easels and studio easels can wait until you’ve either saved enough to purchase them or gained mastery of the medium you’re using.

4. Note the measurements of your workspace. If you have a small workspace, choose among tripod easels, floor-standing easels, and built-in storage easels. These types of easels have scaled-down versions which are perfect for small spaces, but the easels with storage boxes are very in demand nowadays because of its space-saving feature. And, don’t just consider the width and length of the workspace; notice the height as well. It’s best to choose adjustable easels to suit the workspace. On the other hand, if you have a large workspace, feel free to buy studio easels not only for creating your artwork but also for decorating your art room.

The problem of the fiscal cliff seems to be getting smaller back int the 2000 the fiscal 1996 deficit was only 1.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. But the vast majority of the decline in the then  deficit was the result of cutting national averages  which is now at its highest level as a percentage of the GDP average since before the the great depression. [In the past couple of years federal outlays on physical resources have been declining as a percentage of GDP kept on falling.] The basic strategy of the budget and the   human resources of the budget, which includes food stamps, healthcare and health expenditures, has been virtually non consistent as a percent of the GDP.

But the pressures on federal saving will increase dramatically once the baby-boomers  generation begins to retire in and stops investing further. The biggest ratio of people working to people retired will begin to decline in biger numbers, and federal expenditures for Healthcare, Foodstamps, Social Security and Medicare will increase as a percentage of GDP.

As of right now  we have about 5 people working in the labor force for every retired baby boomer; by the year 2034 there will be only about 9 people working for each retired person if things don’t change and we reduce our federal spending. And as for Social Security (SSOST) and the Obama care insurance part of Medicare (HI) will increase from the current level of 9.39 percent of GDP almost of full seven percentage points by 2040, while the other over two percentage points by 2042, and almost additional 10% every four years there after so we can all agree that we need to end this spending frenzy and reevaluate our futures.

To finance an increase in expenditures through increased taxes, a convenient rule of thumb is that for every increase of a percentage point of GDP in federal spending, tax revenue would have to be raised by an amount equivalent to a 10 percent surcharge on all individual and corporate income taxes. So by the year 2030, we are looking at an amount equal to a surcharge of 40 percent on all income taxes.

The demographic crisis is thus a fiscal crisis that is extremely difficult politically. Passage of the balanced budget amendment by the U.S. Congress would encourage debate about this problem in every state of the union, which would in itself be a benefit whatever the ultimate outcome. What we decide to do will affect Americans of different generations differently. It is not an easy matter. But it is a debate we should have.