Tuesday, February 23, 1982
Page 8
Daily Nebraskan
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Arts & Entertainment
Little book examines five big economic problems
13 y David Wood
Five Economic
tice Hall
Challenges Heilbroner & Thurow Pren-
Inflation makes inflation. The recession takes jobs.
Government gets bigger. The dollar means less. Energy
runs scarce. Bad times darken the economic outlook on at
ea&t fwe YOTV7.cm&.
Wliat is to be made of it? Wliat is to be done about it?
Wliat lias been done about it, and what is that doing? Five
Economic Challenges is a primer for the average person
who gets muddled just thinking about such things.
The authors, Robert Heilbroner and Lester Thurow,
are after two birds with one book. First, they have tried
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to put the book's 140 pages in plain enough terms that a
basic grasp of economic perplexities is in anyone's reach.
The second intention is to impress on everyone that
solutions lie not in theoretical progress. Changes in
attitude are what are needed.
"Our message is that the economy is not a machine and
that economists are not engineers," the introduction says.
"The parts of the economy, no matter what fancy names
we give them, are always people. The repairs, for all the
economic jargon in which they may be clothed, are always
political. The decisions are never just technical, but
moral."
The authors were working together on a college text
when they decided to whittle some of the material to a
point for a second, smaller book aimed at a broader audi
ence. They have the credentials to sell it with.
Previous books
Heilbroner earned prominence in 1053 with his widely
used history of economic thought, The Worldly Philoso
phers. He has written several books since, Thurow's best
seller came out only last year. The Zero-Sum Society
quickly made Thurow a credible, literary counterpoint to
George Gilder, the author who recently popularized
supply-side economics.
Heilbroner and Thurow never criticize Reaganomics
directly. But their viewpoint, which is perforce political, is
Book
Review
fundamentally opposed. A corollary to their belief that
the economy is not a machine is the belief that tentative
tinkering will not fix it.
The problems facing us arc organic symptoms of an ail
ing, over-strained, evolved system. Solutions may be avail
able only at the long-term cost of overhauling whole parts
of the accepted structure. Morally, the cost should be
distributed equitably over the populace. But to do so is a
tricky proposition, politically.
Implicit to much of Five Economic Challenges is the
concept of "the zero-sum game." When the Gross Nation
al Product, per capita and in real dollars, stagnants, any
change in the economy is only a change in the distribution
of the nation's total wealth. Greater incomes for some arc
losses for others. The choice is political.
Moving higher
A glimpse at the chapter on inflation illustrates the
authors' way of thinking. Price floors, indexed rates and
cost-of-living allowances have given inflation a built-in
"rachet tendency" to move in only one direction, higher.
Voluntary wage and price ceilings could help, if cheating
did not pay so well. Mandatory control, which might
work, would be irritating and an administrative nightmare.
Higher taxes and cuts in government funding likewise
are always unpopular, and a balanced budget is no sure
cure anyway. Tight money seems to work only temporar
ily, while an all-out recession could do the trick, but at an
extreme cost in jobs.
"The painless cure requires a higher order of political
persuasion - plus a higher order of public consensus," the
authors conclude. "Failing the ability to gain that, we
have no alternative to policies that will impose the cost of
stopping inflation on one group or another."
Heilbroner and Thurow stress that "the real challenge
of inflation, as always, is political. Who will bear the brunt
of the instability of our present economic order? So far
we have imposed that burden largely on the backs of the
weakest members of society (the unemployed) - those
who are unwillingly drafted to be its inflation fighters."
Five Economic Challenges is clear and concise about
the issues. The little book offers no quick and easy remed
ies because the authors see none. Yet in an economy that
is overridden with corporate mentality and in dire need of
revision, the book's egalitarian perspective is valuable. It is
not anti-big-busincss, but pro-justice. The human-side
economics of Heilbroner and Thurow is both appealing
and sane.
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' Carl Kamprath gets up and goes to work every day the Nebraska Legislature
. . is in session, even though he retired from a fob delivering mail on the UNL '
, . ! campus in about 1972. . . " " ' - . ' x .
"Many a morning you think, We?, what's thematter with me?' You want to
throw that alarm clock out the window, " the 71-year-old assistant sergeant-at- .
- - . arms said. But '7 like to meet people and you simply don V want to vegetate, f .
. ' you know. This kinda keeps you in trim." : , : . r. - ' - '
- - - The Legislature 's ergeant-at-arms and three assistant sergeants-at-arms help .
r, " senators, lobbyists 'and visitors to the Capitol, and generally keep order on the V -'
5 Legislature floor. 1 - - . . hv. - ,
V"' - The position pays "about $4 an hour," so the men serving the senators '
' " : ; ' earn more than the senators, Carl agreed that paying senators more than $400
a month would help retain quality senators.' t ; . :, . ,
' ' 5 "But tliat 's not pay for them:. That 's a gratuity, ft 's a privilege, "he said, ' -y
rj smiling.'. '. . - ,. : t.
'V' Carl,wlto has worn the position's red jacket for five years, said he tike's the
' , V . fob "but you know it 's not a thing ; 1 . you don 't break a leg going after it. .
. y : "in tell you what . , there s a time in every session when you think, Hey, ; r
x- 'j, ' I'm going to go traveling, ' v . - ..
" ; 'But the snow and cold of winter keeps Car from traveling, and working in'-.
I the Capitol gives lum something to do. ' .' . J ' : '" ' ' . : '
- "When there's snow outside, all you want to do is look at the walls. At least -in
here you can look at some senators." .
By;D.. Eric ' Kircher