THE BATTALION
MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1980
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Study of “garbology”
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United Press International
LOS ANGELES — The garbage
cans behind American homes, those
battered barrels of coffee grounds
and icky-sticky papers, are reposi
tories of knowledge. They say that
economic equality marches on in the
consumer society.
» That is the latest report from a
university professor who has de
voted his career to reading them.
I William Rathje, a University of
Arizona anthropologist, is known as
the father of “garbology,” the study
of modern society through its gar
bage, just as archeologists have for
years studied ancient civilizations
through their refuse.
) After seven years of supervising
students poking through the garbage
of rich and poor in Tucson, Rathje
says differences between economic
classes and regional groups are
dwindling in the United States.
“The American dream is alive and
well in our garbage cans.
“Garbage is, in an ultimate sense,
the great equalizer. At the level of
what people eat, drink, consume on
a daily basis, there aren’t that many
major differences, ” between the top,
middle and bottom economic
groups, he said in an interview while
on a lecture stop at the University of
Southern California.
“We’ve just finished a IV'a-year
study in Milwaukee and although
we’re still analyzing the results, my
impression is that we found little dif
ference from Tucson, certainly not
enough to be significant. Even
though we were dealing with two
cities very different in their cultural
background and weather, they had
very similar garbage.”
Since he began setting his stu
dents to cataloguing the contents of
garbage cans — by some 150 classifi
cations — the movement toward gar
bage equality has changed one of his
earliest and best known findings, he
said.
“In 1973, low income families
were paying more per ounce for food
— not more dollars necessarily, but
pyaing more than middle income
families for what they got.
“There were several possibilities
maybe because they buy more
heavily advertised brands, maybe
because they can’t afford to go to a
distant supermarket, maybe because
they have to buy in small quantities.
“But over the years that’s changed
to the point where we’re now dealing
with much more similar food pat
terns in both middle and low income
neighborhoods.
Rathje, 34, with a Harvard docto
rate in archaeology, got into garbage
analysis while trying to teach stu
dents at the University of Arizona
“what archaeology is about.”
Since he couldn’t hand out valu
able ancient artifacts to students, “I
decided we should go out and look at
Tucson to see what’s going on around
us, to relate patterns in human be
havior to patterns in materials cul
ture.
“Two students independently
came up with the idea of looking at
garbage to see if their stereotypes of
people fit the garbage they threw
out.
“Thoy found out the stereotypes
really didn’t fit.”
The Tucson sampling, begun in
1973, is now a year-round project.
The refuse researchers wear gloes
and lab coats. Students wear face
masks and are innoculated against
tetanus.
Friedman s book, TV series
show need to diffuse power
United Press International
NEW YORK — “The question I
always ask,” says Milton Friedman,
sounding more like a philosopher
than a Nobel laureate in economics,
“is ‘Can you let a man be free to sin. ’
“If you really know what sin is, the
answer is ‘No’ because if you let him
be free to sin, you’re sinning,” he
says. “The fundamental justification
for freedom, in my opinion, is that
we can’t be sure we really know what
sin is. ”
Groping in an uncertain world, in
dividuals need all their options
open, says Friedman. Government
meddling with personal choices
should be curbed at every turn. A
government that does more than
umpire — ruling out what is clearly
wrong *— exceeds its purpose, he
believes.
It is here the philosopher Fried
man meets the economist.
Friedman’s life work in the highly
technical reaches of the “dismal sci
ence” has molded a personal outlook
that sees individual freedom absent
without economic freedom and that
rates free markets as infinitely super
ior to anything in the capacities of
government.
Friedman’s views have been re
cast into a just-published book and a
TV series airing on Public Broadcast
ing System stations. Both the book
and Friedman’s TV debut are titled
“Free to Choose” and were
fashioned in collaboration with his
economist wife, Rose.
“There are two possible interpre
tations,” Friedman said of the little
change in his views over the years.
“Either I’m stubborn, which is true,
or I believe I’ve been right, which is
also true.”
The 10-part series, he said, is not a
response to John Kenneth Gal
braith’s 1977 production of “The Age
of Uncertainty,” though compari
sons are inevitable.
Unlike the economic history pre
sented by Galbraith, Friedman is us
ing TV to hammer home his beliefs
about markets, money and the need
to diffuse power in society. Avoiding
concentration, he says, requires
spelling out exactly what govern
ment is premitted to do.
His emphasis on law rather than
leaving government to its
announced goals or good intentions
has brought Friedman criticism for a
mechanical and legalistic approach
to the world that minimizes — not
enhances — the importance of the
individual.
Friedman, saying such criticism
“never comes home to roost, ” happi
ly puts his trust in a government of
laws rather than men.
“In order for the individual to
have freedom and flexibility to do
what he wants, he has to know the
rules under which he is operating.
He sees the public sentiment
swinging rapidly toward curbs on
government and there is no question
that Friedman’s message has influ
enced economists and even some in
government itself.
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