Restructuring industry

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 14

Restructuring industry

Sir,—-This word “restructuring” is sufficiently imprecise in meaning to be a favourite among politicians; it means most things to all men. The philosophy behind restructuring is economic Darwinism — the survival of the most efficient. It is clear, that to work effectively, restructuring must be uniformly applied and cause pain through unemployment and business failures, not necessarily the fault of management. I believe there is great scope for the restructuring of Government controlled industries and the Public Service. The Americans are acknowledged experts in scientific management and the Government should employ a firm of American management consultants to make a full investigation into all Government businesses and departments. The result should be the winding-up of unprofitable services and a more streamlined Public Service with a smaller payroll. By the extensive use of microtechnology the Government could effect large-scale redundancies. This is the hard logic of restructuring: the Government must lead the way. — Yours, etc., F. ROBINSON. August 27, 1980.

Sir,,—Mr Muldoon’s bumptious and arrogant reply to David Bainbridge’s excellent letter leaves me flabbergasted. True, the worst large private consortiums may be as inefficient as the best government establishments, but an outrage like the Railways could only exist where efficiency and profitability are not considerations, and where wanton squandering of public money is the norm. This “restructuring basically seems to be a crushing of small, formerly viable private enterprises by crippling taxation, soaring inflation, unemployment, compulsory unionism, and other such socialist methods, and the building up of huge government-run or government-assisted monopolies. This inevitably leads to no competition, massive price hikes (e.g. electricity, postage), a Third World living standard, and a police state to keep the people from rebelling. Totali-

tarianism, communism, socialism, fascism are all terml; to describe : this philosophy to which Mr Muldoon and his World Bank buddies are clearly committed. —Yours, etc.. FRANK A. SMITH. August 27, 1980.