Public Policy / The Bromide of Campaign '80?
Abrams, Elliott
"Public Policy / The Bromide of Campaign '80?" all Willie,'Phil, and Jeannette ever do is drop acid once (in the only scene in the movie that is remotely realistic, and the only one in which Margot Kidder, who plays Jeannette, gets a chance...
...tion...
...he seems obsessed with proving that, unlike other men, he is on the side of the fairer sex...
...It may be (although the case has yet to be proved) that the economics of steel or auto making, including wage rates, now favor production in Japan, or Korea, or elsewhere outside the U.S...
...U] THE BROMIDE OF CAMPAIGN '80...
...Instead, voices from government, business, and labor babble on about " r e i n d u s t r i a l i z a - tion," a term so vague all parties can agree on it and yet not have a single common proposal...
...A free market plan would make no decisions as to where capital would flow, and would simply encourage capital formation through measures such as tax incentives and regulatory l'eform...
...confronted...
...Since they are so nondescript, and Jeannette so dully unfathomable, none of their actions assume the necessary significance...
...A new Reconstruction Finance Corporation has been championed by Felix Rohatyn, the investment banker...
...So the major issues are never discussed...
...He cannot poke the slightest fun at it...
...But whatever the economic rationale for shrinking them, the steel and auto industries deserve special consideration because without them our ability to build tanks and ships and other essential military goods is greatly damaged...
...Why do we hear so little of this in the reindustrialization debate...
...One can guess: Those who favor grea~er "national planning" are ordinarily not too keen on military preparedness, and the very last thing they would want is to make an argument for military spending...
...It all seems only to r e p r e s e n t the behavior of childish, empty, and uninteresting people...
...An intelligent debate would ask whether we want more government, or less...
...Theories of comparative advantage would tell us, then, to go on with the building of computers or DNA and leave such products as steel or autos to others...
...So the United States needs to "reindustrialize" to save the balance of payments, defend the dollar, and protect American jobs, we are told...
...b y E l l i o t t Abrams There is, however, a separable national defense issue in this debate...
...Steel can...
...economy...
...a r e - - steel, or computers, or autos, or biotechnology--but who will decide...
...The first is the decreasing American competitiveness in world trade, symbolized by imports of Japanese steel and autos...
...efficient Japanese steel industry can ship iron ore and coal to J a p a n , produce steel, ship it to the United States, and still sell it for less than U.S...
...What has happened to Mazursky...
...whether economic and national security arguments are, to any extent, contradictory...
...And what is meant, generally, is that more capital should be available in the right places in the economy...
...Thus we quickly reach the issue of free market economics~ The important question here is not what those "right places in the economy...
...Certainly this is true of the steel industry, where sufficient capital for modernization has been lacking, so that the modern and El/iott Abrams practices law in Washington, D.C...
...the New York Times did a whole series on the matter...
...whether credit and capital can be efficiently allocated by the state...
...They want all t h a t capital put into plowshares, not Swords...
...And if he continues to place the liberated woman at the center of his films, he will be lost forever...
...all Willie,'Phil, and Jeannette ever do is drop acid once (in the only scene in the movie that is remotely realistic, and the only one in which Margot Kidder, who plays Jeannette, gets a chance to display her formidable acting abilities), avoid the draft, buy a car, go to a New York Knicks game, go to California, have a child, live on a farm, and go to India...
...For one can favor two e n t i r e l y different plans for "reindustrializaWhen people speak of reindustrialization, they generally have in mind two problems now facing the U.S...
...But in the context of the America of t980, reindustrialization is a term which obfuscates rather than illuminates...
...This choice is the central issue in the reindustrialization debate, but is never squarels...
...For good reason, it is argued .that the low capital formation rate is a main cause of the loss of competitiveness of American industry...
...Such a debate would help us make important choices about how to cope with our n a t i o n ' s diminishing savings and investment and international economic strength...
...On the evidence of the movie and An Unmarried Woman, he has been stymied by the subject that could have supplied the richest grist for his satiric mill, the Women's Movement...
...5 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER1980 33...
...A statist plan would in fact call for "national planning," with government allocation of capital to favored sectors, and a government corporation to sponsor and finance favored investment...
...This reverence for the Movement's ideology has castrated him as a filmmaker...
...The issue is the role of the s t a t e , or simply put, more capitalism or more socialism...
...This year, at the lexicographical inspiration and leadership of Columbia University's Amitai Etzioni, much has been heard about "reindustrializing" America...
...The choice before us is between more capitalism or less, and--in view of the success of national planning elsewhere--it is no wonder those favoring less hide behind a term like "reindustrialization...
...In that context, use o f the term "reindustrialization" is appropriate and the term has a clear meaning...
...A f t e r the Second World War, Germany r e - i n d u s t r i a l i z e d . Its oncemighty industrial plant had been destroyed during the War, and was rebuilt, and of course modernized and expanded...
...The use of the term hinders clear thought about thetwo important issues which lie behind it: national defense policy and free market economics...
...This is p a r t l y the fault of the actors: Michael Ontkean, who plays Willie, is a bland ingenue who cannot speak even a well.written line without making it sound false, and Ray Sharkey, who in Who'll Stop the Rain displayed immense promise, overacts so furiously that one wonders if Phil is maybe on uppers...
...Willie and Phil are supposed to have become extraordinary because of their relations with Jeannette, yet they remain nondescript throughout...
...Business Week presented us with an entire issue under that title...
...Second is the low rate of savings and investment as a percentage of GNP...
Vol. 13 • December 1980 • No. 12
