Dear Editor
Dear Editor Bhagwati Jagdish N. Bhagwati's review of Lester Thurow's The Zero-Sum Solution ('"Pull Up' Not 'Trickle Down,'" NL, December 16-30, 1985) is, in my view, right on the money. To bolster...
...What jobs are not dead-end, after all, except for those held by the talented or lucky few...
...They can look forward to a reasonable future, and to offering their children additional alternatives...
...unusually talented, yet had no opportunity to nurture those talents—and that, it seems to me, is a waste...
...I say additional, not superior, because why is a lawyer or MBA superior to an electrician...
...Remarkably, though, too many of our economic theorists seem bent on ignoring it...
...economic slide, strongly advanced by Thurow, Bhagwati offers the testimony of Franco Modigliani: "Nonsense, complete nonsense...
...Surely, though, there must be a limit to how much we need to know about the pap being fed to viewers by the tube...
...Certainly the Reagan government, apparently on principle, is determined to wash its hands of all responsibility for social problems...
...If I have any argument with Bhagwati, it is on his nonetheless awarding "Galbraith's mantle" to Thurow...
...Washington, D. C. Edgar Freiberg Gewen Barry Gewen, in his review of J. Anthony Lukas' Common Ground ("A City Without a Middle," NL, November 4-18, 1985), falls into an error that struck me forcibly...
...Kitman As a reader of The New Leader, I am indebted to Marvin Kitman, first of all, for placing what television has to offer us (or, more accurately, doesn't have to offer us) in perspective through the medium of his cutting humor...
...Her son becomes an electrician, a sought-after berth in the building trades...
...Based on Lukas' account, they were (are...
...Even the mass audience, to judge from recent newspaper stories reporting the ratings difficulties both shows are experiencing, seems to be saying "enough already...
...Perhaps because of the lack of a working-class environment strong enough to counter the call of the streets...
...production of manufactures for sale to third markets" is a telling one...
...Chicago Robert Grinberg...
...To bolster his disagreement with the contention that a low level of savings has been a significant factor in theU.S...
...Alice McGoff, a widow with seven children, worked at a variety of dead-end jobs from hat-check girl to telephone operator...
...Speaking of the McGoffs and Twymons, he says that" these two female-headed families shared a common unhappy condition: They lived on the edge of America's abyss...
...And, secondly, for keeping me abreast of trivia I would not know about that is nonetheless an important element of our mass culture...
...Those who still doubt this might also consider the billions of dollars Wall Street easily generates for junk bonds...
...The same sums could of course be put to better use stimulating economic growth...
...Bhagwati's point about the magnitude of "'Offshore' U.S...
...At least I had that feeling while reading Kitman's column about the spinoff of Dynasty II: The Co/bys from Dynasty I: The Carringtons ("On Television,'" NL, November 4-18, 1985...
...In fact, Alice lived in the working-class mainstream, set apart only by her widowhood, and held typical jobs...
...Productivity, another Thurow concern, has similarly been something of a bogus issue for quite a while now...
...Diamond Barry Gewen Replies: Joseph Diamond and I do not disagree, except in our estimation of the fate of the McGoffs...
...her daughter, a secure clerical worker...
...Moreover, without plunging into a debate on the relative merits of various occupations, I would simply say that an MBA is more advantageously positioned in our society than a clerical worker (no matter how secure...
...Rachel Twymon, the black mother of six, on the other hand, cannot prevent her sons from failing out of society into the criminal underclass, at least as teenagers...
...No one seems to have a solution, and in the present climate, not many are even considering the question...
...Not so fast...
...New YorkCity JosephM...
Vol. 69 • January 1986 • No. 1
