Wisdom From An Economist

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30763, 29 May 1965, Page 5

Wisdom From An Economist

'By

BOB JOHNSON

in the “Sun-

Herald,” Sydney-. Reprinted by arrangement.)

pROFESSOR John Kenneth Galbraith undoubtedly stands as tall in the world of economics as he does in physical height. He is professor of economics at Harvard University, best-selling author and debunker of economic myths, former Presidential adviser and a former ambassador. He is 6ft Bjin.

Lean and stoop-shouldered —he automatically bobs his grey head when he walks through doorways—Professor Galbraith was in Australia recently to discuss the world’s economic troubles at the International Congress on Human Relations, in Melbourne.

He was ill with a sinus infection picked up during his term as United States Ambassador to India (196163) and only a shadow of his witty scholarly self. Nevertheless he was, in more than stature, one of the outstanding speakers at a congress rich in telented debaters and shrugged off his illness to give all his time to a never-ending stream of people who wanted nothing more than to talk to him. What he had to say about almost anything, even cars and their increasing number,s fell on receptive ears. Gadgets It was when I got to talk with him in Melbourne, over afternoon tea —ye/ he preferred tea to coffee—that he let loose on this obviously favourite subject of his, crowded highways and car-exhaust-poisoned air. And in so doing he unconsciously touched on one of Sydney’s sore spots, urban and suburban transportation.

It was a question about his Congress-made forecasts that workers of the future would be working shorter hours that led him up to it.

“We are bound to be working less in the future,” he said. “We cannot continue to produce the tremendous volume of gadgets we are pouring out now. “We shouldn’t try because we will simply find ourselves creating more problems with too many goods than we would have with too few.

“We are getting close to that situation now with the automobile. “The strains the automobile is putting on society are getting hard to control. “There’s the problem of space both on highways and on urban streets, and there’s the problem of air pollution: an enormous part of our atmosphere is now polluted by car exhausts.

“If a Martian dropped into down-town Sydney, downtown Cleveland or down-town Kharkov he probably wouldn’t see any difference. Wary Of Cars “But the one thing he would have to be darn sure to do would be to keep out of the way of the automobiles. “Rather than continue to increase the automobile population we have to devise substitutes, particularly for urban transportation. “The city of San Francisco has just faced up to and made a decision on this very thing. “It had the choice of choking its city area with freeways or creating a very expensive computer-controlled mass public transportation system. It opted for the latter. “So what this in effect involves is not less production—the subway San Francisco has chosen to solve its traffic problems will involve huge expenditure and a tremendous amount of work —but better designed and planned production.” And this, according to the | professor is what industry and 1 industrial unions should be

looking toward—better planned production and better planned leisure time, in a future in which workers must have a reduced working year. So far, said Professor Galbraith trade-union bargaining had been for two main goals, a reduced working week and paid vacations. “I would like to see a variety of other options come in,” he said.

Choice Of Holidays

“The worker should have a choice about leisure time to suit individual taste. “If he wants to take his allotted two weeks or three week’s vacation on full pay, 0.k.; if he wants to take a month or six weeks on half pay that should be in order too.

“I would even argue strongly for a worker who has had six or seven years’ service in a job to have six months off on three-quarter pay. “Then if he wants to have a trip to Europe he can. “Whatever the more privileged members of the community enjoy is likely to be enjoyed by those less privileged. “We shouldn't always assume that it will be the working week that will become shorter.

“How about thinking in terms of the working year?” The professor folded his long frame deeper into his chair while he pondered a new train of thought. Yes, he said, he could give Australia some good words of advice. Education “Keep your education system ahead of your industrial system,” he said. “We allowed ours in the United States to lag behind and now we are desperately trying to catch up.” . That, he said, was one of the advantages of having ! the United States.

I It pictured the various

forms of paradise and purgatory to which other countries could look forward. In the United States, as elsewhere the determining influence on education was the industrial system. It had shaped the educational system of most countries in the past and continued to do so.

In its early stage the need of the industrial system was for a limited number of managers, book-keepers, engineers and clerks—“and the brutish mass." So in the United States elementary education of a poor quality was provided for the mass. More advanced education was exiguous. Questions Now men of high scientific, engineering, co-ordinating, sales and other qualifications were strongly in demand; those with little but repetitive muscle power to offer were little needed. Suddenly Professor Galbraith, economist extraordinary, diplomat and author was uncoiling pale fingers from his cup of “good Australian tea.” The interview was over. He wasn't feeling the best but he knew he couldn't disappoint the men outside at the congress who were waiting to ask him a hundred questions. They would want to know again if he really meant what he said in his devastatingly attacking best-selling book “The Affluent Society.”

And he would answer them with questions he posed in the book. . . Why worship work and. productivity if many of the goods we produce are superfluous—artifical needs created by high-pressure advertising? Why grudge expenditure on vital public works while ignoring waste and extravagance on the private sector of the economy..

If you are wise, laugh.— Martial.