An Intangible Bicentennial Monument; M. Rukeyser

success- "spend and spend, elect and elect." 2. The global intellectual error of equating the printing of more money with social gains is not peculiar to Americans. 3. Fuzzy thinking is caused by the 'blunder of assuming that the civic minded must choose between "liberalism" and "conservatism." Such rigidity overlooks the fact that the human animal as a bundle of contradictions may be an ad vanced thinker in new life styles, including open marriage, while being a stickler for fiscal integrity. In his essay on "The Spirit of Conservatism in the Light of His tory," James Harvey Robinson dis closed the utter inability of wish ful thinking .to make the world stand still. A common illusion is 33 34 THE FREEMAN January that conservatism is a basic in gredient for business success. Under modern technology, how ever, little in life is permanent except change. Business survival is heightened by innovation-not by looking backwards. The com petent executive fights obsoles cence.

4. One costly naivete is the assumption that government as a cornucopia has limitless resources. The scientific-minded know that even the strongest bridge has a limited capacity. 5. While government has the power to redistribute wealth, prog ress in living standards springs from the creativity which uses resources effectively and makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before. 6. It's deemed a truism that costs make prices, but this is really only a half truth. Constructive pro ducers and distributors, instead of passively accepting expenses, are forever seeking to reduce costs through elimination of wasteful motions, through the introduction of better methods and complement ing the human muscle with increas ing quanti ties of mechanical energy. 7. As Charles Darwin revealed, some change is retrogressive. Thus it's a backward step to reject the principle that users (consumers) should pay the freight. The intro duction of subsidies, whereby part of the cost is borne by others, namely the taxpayers, weakens business discipline and narrows the ability of the customer to be the kingpin in determining what should be produced and in what quantities and style. The subsidy concept condones economic waste.

8. Economic theorists got us off the track in the past four decades by circulating the delusion that money manipulation by govern ment can replace thrift and ind us try in lifting levels of material we1l-being. This fallacy, especially in underdeveloped nations, makes it easier for men on horseback to seize power by promising the moon -only to deliver inflation and frus tration. 9. Another costly misconception is that we can preserve the U.S. constitutional system of checks and balances by supporting local gov ernment with Federal and state "aid." The system is corrupting, since local budgetmakers unrealis tically tend to look upon such "aid" as free windfall money. Former President Nixon damaged a con structive idea for revenue sharing by stipulating that Washington continue to collect the highly pro ducti ve taxes and then as Lady Bountiful make a gift of part of 1976 AN INTANGIBLE BICENTENNIAL MONUMENT 35 the proceeds to the states and the subdivisions. This approach furth er promotes centralization and weakens the independence of the states· and the localities, including the school districts. The Nixon method was wrong because of the axiom that he who pays the. piper calls the tune. It would have been better to have made a compact un der the constitution between the federal government and the states (includingthesubdivisions) where by a newly-created independent tax-collecting agency, representing all levels of government, would col lect the big-yielding taxes and then redistribute them without strings, in accordance with a previously agreed formula, to the various lev els of government.

10. Through endless repetition the erroneous notion has taken hold that government by fiat power can short-cut the road to progtess. By way of illustration, through legislation, court decisions and ad ministrative rulings the power of labor unions has been greatly strengthened since passage of the Wagner Act in 1935. But it is sheer illusion to assume that bigness in labor or in business enables institu tions to violate fundamental rules of human behavior. Thus during the current automobile recession the private unemployment compen sation schemes set up by Chrysler and General Motors under collec tive bargaining soon became ex hausted. No matter how strongly entrenched, no pressure group by contract can arbitrarily fix a date for the conquest of cancer! 11. A school of economic savants has proclaimed the bizarre doctrine that big, "monopolistic" corpora tions are· above the rules of the market place, and can administer prices and call the shots. If proof to the contrary were needed, little could have been more impressive than the weakness of the automo bile Big Three in recent months in the face of wilting demand. This is a reminder that a business enter prise is strong only when it offers goods and services of a price, style and quality that potential cus tomers are able and willing to buy.

12. With the global drift toward Marxism, it is illusory to equate increased intervention by govern ment in economic affairs with pro gressivism. Totalitarian excesses emphasize that freedom is indivi sible and that an open market, which gives the individual optimum free choice, is an essential ingre dient in the all-around adventure in human liberty. 13. The public is exploited by the myth that a political incumbent has a right to be reelected. Whenever an overpowering desire to retain 36 THE FREEMAN January office at any cost develops a con flict of interests among incum bents, the public good can be served by rotation in office. 14. The psychological disloca tions, incidental to stagflation, create a widespread misconception that the personalities in the great financial institutions know all the answers and that little folks should stay away in droves from the stock market. However, the scoreboard On Being Constructive of successful investment in this risk-oriented society shows that in times of economic maladjustment it is human even for the great to err, as changes in the valuation of institutional portfolios disclose.

If the bicentennial year can be dedicated to dissipating delusions, progress will be made toward achieving the future promise of American life! ~ IDEAS ON LIBERTY EVERY ONE of the proposed reforms has something to commend it, while the sincerity of the proponents makes one wish that they might succeed. The fact remains, however, that the reform invari ably rests its case on the goodwill, intelligence, and selflessness of men who, invested with the power to do so, will put the reform into operation. And the lesson of history is that power is never so used. Never. I am convinced, on the other hand, that all of the evils of which these honest people complain can be traced to the misuse of power, and am therefore inclined to distrust political power of any kind ... The only "constructive" idea that I can in all conscience advance, then, is that the individual put his trust in himself, not in power; that he seek to better his understanding and lift his values to a higher and still higher level; that he assume responsibility for his behavior and not shift his responsibility to committees, organi zations and, above all, a superpersonal State. Such reforms as are necessary will come of themselves when, or if, men act as intelli gent and responsible human beings. There cannot be a "good"

society until there are "good" men. FRANK CHODOROV JOAN WILKE GUESS WHO spends more on adver tising than AT&T and .Chrysler and Lever Bros. and General Elec tric and Gillette and Coca Cola. Guess who spends over tunce as much on advertising as Kodak, Du Pont, Kellogg's, Pillsbury, Grey hound and Volkswagen. Guess who spends over three times as much on advertising as Heinz, Schlitz, Mobil Oil, Toyota and American Motors. Guess who spends more on adver tising than Shell Oil, Scott Paper, Mazda, Delta Airlines, Eastern Airlines alnd American Airlines put together. You do. The U. S. Government is now the loth largest advertiser in the Unit ed States, spending $110 million of the taxpayers' money last year. Actually, that ranking is mis leading since the government has an advantage other advertisers don't have. It doesn't pay for radio and television time. That costly item is donated to the government free as a public service.