The Battalion
V IE WPOINT
Slouch By Jim Earle
‘Of course I might be wrong, but a strap-on TV doesn’t turn
me om
Reagan ready for new
By HELEN THOMAS
WASHINGTON — President Reagan has a
new set of priorities now that he has had
smashing success in passing the bulk of his
economic recovery program through Con
gress — defense, foreign affairs and the war
on crime.
Reagan’s personal lobbying — he hates
to have it called “arm twisting” — defeated
Democratic leadership to obtain a $35 bil
lion slash in federal spending and a 3-year,
25 percent, across-the-board tax cut.
His super salesmanship and television
appeal turned the tide for him. He did not
mind “listening” to the private interests
and accommodating them where he could
to win votes. He has satisfied the oil indus
try, the milk industry and those who sought
peanut and tobacco subsidies.
His top adviser, Edwin Meese, says
Reagan will now turn his attention to a full
agenda that will include major and controv
ersial Pentagon decisions on whether to go
ahead with the B-l bomber that former
President Jimmy Carter rejected.
He also has to make up his mind on an
MX missile basing system with Nevada and
Utah opposing the so-called “race track”
system for rotating the missiles to keep the
Russians guessing. Defense Secretary Cas
par Weinberger is reported to be leaning
toward a system of keeping the missiles
airborne in specially built cargo planes.
Unlike most presidents, Reagan has kept
foreign policy on the back burner but is
defensive when critics say he has none.
Nevertheless, Reagan himself has said
that he will be devoting more time to fore
ign affairs in the months to come and the
Middle East tinderbox is expected to be at
the forefront.
The Israelis and the Arabs are obviously
waiting to see what Reagan has in mind to
bring about what his goals for "a lasting
peace.” His predecessors had the same
goals to no avail.
He is committed to maintaining the
Camp David peace process, but so far there
has been little movement in that direction.
The president also may face a battle to
sell five AWACS, sophisticated surveill
ance planes to Saudi Arabia that has strong
opposition on Capitol Hill.
Reagan also must make moves to bolster
the NATO alliance with West German Can-
cellor Helmut Schmidt, already serving
notice that high U.S. interest rates will
force his country to reduce its defense
spending.
The drive for independence among Afri-
August 6, 1981
priorities
can nations and the so-called northi
dialogue between the industrialnatii
developing countries is another I
policy issue Reagan will confront i|
months ahead.
On the domestic front, Meese s
Reagan will initiate new tougher!
curb crime and to step up enforcen)
the narcotics laws.
He also hopes to establish the"
prise zones” which he promoteddn
campaign as part of his urban ecoq
velopment program.
But the most controversial issues!
abortion, school prayer and busi
wli.it Heagan is hopini; he can keepi
the spotlight for awhile.
He managed to keep them offtl
burner in Congress during the cun
sion. But how long it is quest
whether he can keep these touchyi
from reaching national debate leveliI
Clearly he hopes that he may keepi
at bay while he pursues someofthei(
which will be less explosive.
At any rate, he has his workcuto
him and he cannot rest on his laurelsl
with his economic recovery program!^
place.
How Japan can survive
without alien workers
NEW YORK — Nearly all advanced in
dustrial nations depend on alien workers,
mainly to perform unskilled tasks. But the
exception is Japan, which functions with
remarkable success without immigrant
labor.
The presence of Turks in West Ger
many, Algerians in France and Mexicans in
the United States, though valuable to the
economy, causes ethnic and cultural ten
sions as well as competition for housing,
education and medicl care. The Japanese
avoid these social conflicts by keeping out
foreign workers — and yet their economy
flourishes.
During a recent trip to Japan, in which I
interviewed some 50 executives, scholars
and officials, I reached the conclusion that
the Japanese cope without foreign workers
because of their extraordinary system of
labor-management relations, which mobil
izes indigenous employees.
Despite different institutions, history
and values, therefore, the Japanese may
be able to to offer some lessons in this re
spect to the United States and other mod
ern industrial societies.
In Japan, as elsewhere, there is clearly no
shortage of menial work to be done such as
cleaning, laborious construction jobs, jani
torial duties, and the like. But those tasks
are not badly paid or held in low esteem, as
they are in other countries — and they are
often not dead-end assignments.
Indeed, salaries among occupations in
Japan do not differ as much as they do in
America. Wage levels and pay raises there
are governed mainly by age, seniority and
sex.
They are promoted regularly and given
pay raises. But their tasks are rotated within
the firm, and some of these tasks are me
nial.
Young Japanese employees accept these
jobs, largely because there is no stigma
attached to them. They have learned to do
manual labor from childhood at home and
in school. Thus industry in Japan has been
able to integrate a “low-level” work ethic
into the nation’s social behavior, and em
ployees benefit in welfare terms that go
well beyond their wages.
As a consequence, Japan holds little
attraction for foreign workers, since job
vacancies there are rare. Registered aliens,
most of them Koreans, represent only 0.7
percent of the entire population.
Should labor be needed, the Japanese
can always count on poor Asian countries
nearby to provide it. But Japan itself can
draw on large labor reserves, especially
among retiring middle-aged workers, from
employees being laid off from declining in
dustries, or from services being machin-
ized and enlarged in scale.
It would be simplistic to suggest that the
Japanese system could be easily imported
into the United States. For one thing,
Japanese labor unions are geared to indi
vidual companies, while those in America
are independent and antagonistic toward
management. Nor would American work
ers accept the Japanese concept of unequal
pay for equal work according to the work
er’s age, sex and seniority.
But the United States might consider
further extending the ideas from Japan of
contracting out low-grade tasks to special
ized firms, notably in cleaning and repair
ing services, which would provide for im
proved regularity, productivity, pay and
social status.
A more complicated and controversial
lesson to be drawn from the Japanese ex
perience might be the introduction of youth
wage differentials, a possiblity that is
already being debated in America.
Advocated of this approach promise in
creased employment for youth, especially
for minority youths suffering from severe
joblessness. Its opponents say it would ex
ploit youths through low pay as well as im
pair employment and labor standards for
adults.
But what the Japanese do — and what
might be applied in America — is to make
up the low wages initially paid to young
workers through a seniority system that
raises their salaries as they ascend into adult
salary brackets, and are kept in the firm
thereafter.
It may be that the United States, which
lacks Japan’s sense of social responsibility
and national cohesion, can only introduce
such an innovation through protective
legislation. But it could contribuS£ to re
solving an American dilemma, which has
certainly not been settled by current U.S.
immigration policies.
the small society
by Brickman
TOLP Ate TO TA«£ A PILL A*
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€>1961 King Futures Syndicate. Inc. Wortd rights reserved.
3-/0
Thanks for the mammaries
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Me and of Jimmy both
grew up in small southern towns, so I had
no trouble figuring out what he was trying
to get at while he was president.
But Ronald and I have such disparate
backgrounds I can’t always be sure I am
tuned in on his wave length.
It was for orientation as much as any
thing that I recently spent a couple of weeks
in Reagan country, observing the famed
California life style. Here are a few of the
things that caught my eye:
Temporal mores — Teenyboppers, if
that is what they are called nowadays,
everywhere. Mini-micro-bikinis plastered
to residues of baby fat. And that was in the
drug stores. No telling what the beaches
were like.
I asked one of my hosts why so few older
people were about.
“They mess up the image we are trying
to project,” he replied. “For that reason,
we have a law preventing them from being
seen in public.
“Occasionally, some of them may wan
der out on the street but every so often the
Golden Age patrol comes by and herds
them back into the geriatric ghettos where
they are confined.”
“I sure hope they don’t get you,” he
added, mischievously rolling his eyes.
I think he was putting me on, but it was
the kind of legpulling a gullible easterner
could easily believe.
Architecture — In one area I visited I
saw a genuine architectural innovation — a
house that was neither neoSpanish, quasi-
Spanish nor pseudo-Spanish.
It had a small porch with a single Ionic
column. Or maybe it was a Doric column.
Dilapidated rather than rustic. I used to
pass it as I was walking to a neighborhood
shopping center to pick up a morning
paper.
Another thing I noticed was that I was
the only person in the area who used feet for
anything except getting to and from auto
mobiles.
One morning as I was walking past the
non-Spanish house, I saw a small boy on the
porch.
“Look, Momma!” he cried. “There’s a
man out here who is walking.”
His mother quickly reached out the door
and yanked the kid inside. Then she pull
down the blinds.
I’m pretty sure it was the same kid I
encountered in a health food store a couple
of days later.
“Look, Momma,” he hollered. “There’s
a man wearing long pants.”
Water rights — Apparently, there is
some sort of dispute between Southern
California and Northern California over wa
ter diversion.
When I asked a Southern Californian
about the issues, he blamed the whole thing
on Northern California petulance.
“They resent sending us water for our
swimming pools, hot tubs and Jacuzzis,” he
said.
I think he was putting me on, but I feel
closer to ol’ Ronnie already.
'flora, w
USPS 045 360
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