opinion
Reagan remembers
the Depression
by Helen Thomas
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan likes
to point out that he remembers the Great
Depression and the personal hardships it in
flicted.
He has repeatedly recalled that his father,
Jack Reagan, was fired on Christmas eve in
that era. So the need for a job is not alien to the
president.
“I remember what it’s like to be 21 and to
feel your future has been mortgaged by the
generation before you,” he said in last week’s
radio address. “That’s a terrible tragedy we
must never allow to happen again.”
In a new Reagan biography by Washington
Post correspondent Lou Cannon, it is note
worthy that the president’s father, an ardent
Franklin Roosevelt fan, worked in the local
welfare office, passing out government assist
ance to the needy.
In those days, it is doubtful that Reagan
thought of the New Deal projects as “make
work and dead end,” but as life savers. But
over the years he has developed a visceral
feeling against government-sponsored jobs
and programs that eased millions over the
hump in those dark days.
With 11.5 million persons unemployed,
many lawmakers on Capitol Hill are begin
ning to wonder what is the nation’s tolerable
level for joblessness, and when does it become
less than tolerable. They also are seriously
considering whether a program to put people
to work building and repairing highways,
bridges and dams is in order.
The House Democratic leadership has
been in the forefront of such a proposal. The
Senate Republicans are coming around to it.
Whether Reagan can swallow it is not cer
tain. His spokesman describe such programs
as a “quick fix” and say that he is seeking a
permanent solution to the nation’s economic
plight.
But a “permanent solution” to unemploy
ment requires a permanent prosperity for this
country and no economist on the current
scene has offered the key to that door.
So far, administration officials have tried
not to get too far out on a limb in rejecting
moves to have the government create hun
dreds of thousands of new jobs. They don’t
know when they might have to compromise.
Chief White House spokesman Larry
Speakes told reporters that the New Deal pro
jects did not work. He said that a job like that
“plays out after six months and dumps the
people back out on the labor market, sort of
the type that the Democrats from time to time
introduced, and vry similar to those they have
been putting out here for 40 years that have
not worked and had a steady increase of un
employment over 40 years.”
When he was asked whether creation of
jobs for building highways and other public
projects were “dead end,” he replied:
“Let’s just wait and see how all these things
come out.”
But while the White House appears to be
trying to hold the line, the Senate COP lead
ers are reading the midterm election results in
a different way.
They are considering a proposal for a $5
billion program that would be offset by cuts in
military spending.
The projected increases in defense spend
ing so far is sacrosanct with Reagan and he
remains adamant against any reductions,
claiming the United States has to play catch up
with the Soviets from earlier budget cuts.
“In our efforts to revive our economy, jobs
must be our most urgent priority and lasting
solutions must be our constant and consistent
principle,” Reagan said in his broadcast.
“How deeply I wish that we could relieve
our current situation with some immediate
magic method,” he said. But Reagan added
that there is “a new spirit building of optimism
and hope for America’s future.”
He is asking the unemployed to hang in
there while he stays the course.
With a long cold winter coming up, even
temporary solutions may be better than none
in sight.
The Battalion
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by Maxwell Glen
and Cody Shearer
Neither of us ever had the urge to
pursue a master’s degree in business
administration, but we know plenty of
friends who’ve done so.
While they could have studied medi
cine or law with equal devotion, they
chose a profession in which no onw apo
logizes for making quick money.
Unfortunately, as America has be
come desperate for far-sighted business
leadership, we’ve had little reason to be
lieve that this attitude will change much.
Though business schools are trying to
cultivate a new breed of manager, Amer
ican business is doing relatively little to
return the favor.
It’s been almost two and a half years
since Harvard professors Robert H.
Hayes and William J. Abernathy rattled
Corporate America with the calim in the
Harvard Business Review that company
executives — more than labor leaders,
environmentalists and government reg
ulators — had “managed our way to eco
nomic decline.” Some critics said that the
Hayes-Abernathy line — that U.S. execu
tives had emphasized short-term profits
at the expense of longer-term technolo
gical investments — was nothing new for
anyone familiar with the decline of
American steel and automobiles.
But the professors’ timing couldn’t
have been more inportant for graduate
programs charged with training the next
generation of Thomas Watsons (IBM)
and Roger Smiths (General Motors). In
the 197()’s, after all, the number of MBA
enrollments, applicants and graduates
had more than doubled. An increasing
number of young professionals were an
xious to become managerial mercenaries
just as Hayes and Abernathy were blam
ing the nation’s troubles on a rampant,
shortsighted killer instinct.
While Hayes and Abernathy may not
be entirely responsible, their concerns
have since then permeated most MBA
programs, from admissions policy to cur
riculum. “It’s clear that we have to be a
part of the solution,” said Everett T.
Keech, a dean at the University of Penn
sylvania’s Wharton School.
Nowadays, prospective MBA students
can’t rely on grades alone; job experi
ence, liberal arts training and — surprise
— personal qualities are increasingly im
portant in the selection process. Once en
rolled, they might also discover that
worker performance, quality control and
production technique, long considered
too blue-collar for the would-be profes
sional manager, have earned new emj>h-
asis in graduate program curricula.
Meanwhile, the once-elective courses in
“corporate responsibility” are now often
requirements.
Overall, numerous business school
deans admit, a shift in perspective from
short- to long-term profit is taking place.
“In the ’60’s, it was go, go, buy and sell,”
recalled John Rosenblum, acting dean of
the business program at the University of
Virginia. “You’re getting a dif ferent mes
sage in the ’80’s.” Added John C. Burton
of Columbia University: “There’s a grea
ter emphasis on the need to be patient.”
Nonetheless, business school gradu
ates are going where the jobs are.
According to an estimate by the Associa
tion of MBA Executives, two thirds of all
business school graduates enter finance,
marketing, accounting or consulting, as
opposed to 10 percent who become “gen
eral managers.” Among the mqre|
gious schools, the distributionIj
more skewed: Of Harvard’s
recipients last year, 246 found
finance and marketing; only 26toolB
production and service operatiom
“It’s the money,” moaned Han ®
by El
B
Will van
Robert B. Reich, an industrialexpe ,gj es: p
vored by Democrats. “Until (ct)B| i a( | e ts at 1
priorities c hange, you’re not
any change” in placement.
Meanwhile, the never-ending flat
merger activity only reinforces
lion that businessmen havetobe
— and businesses diversified —
this country’s economy. In 1982,tlit]
reports, major mergers are up 15
over this time last year. ‘Tmjustfi
with Bill Agee,” said one business
dean of the Bendix Corp. chat
recalling the Detroit firm’s
publicized attempt to acquire
Marietta Corp. “All he’s done ii
how much we’re cannil
ourselves.”
different fr
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Indeed, in a culture that idolize®hh the I)
fast-track experiences of an Ageeorjp^ sa ' c *
X. DeLorean, even the best B-sdiotfB^^’! p
do little to assure penny wisdom U|( | ^
ence, two qualities which seemtoB nce 'pj lot(
served Japan Inc.’s interests quite.! z j nes aiu | .
Only time will tell whethertbeaiiff e sau * l .' lt
efforts to breed a better business
live have engendered philpsoptaj |( lt ' s
practices which yield long-term res! | )?e \ sa j ( |
But a pervasive economic uncer. AIM ”
among tomorrow’s business leaden® BntOvei
only dampen their faith in pie about <
approaches. Unless the business®^ maga/it
dares to experimant, its bestandbj Alter th
est may decide that patience, oncei
tue, has no value.
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SHAPE WE
PREDICTED
THOSE HOLES.
United t
A study
testing Ser
iian 15 pen
Ink stains
by Dick West
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Watching a national
championship Monopoly game is a bit like
watching a red ant crawling along the beach
with a sprig of dune grass.
After the first hour or so, or however long
it takes for the initial excitement to wear off, a
casual spectator’s interest begins to flag.
Even tense negotiations between the own
ers of “Marvin Gardens” and “St. James
Place” sound like routine real estate shop talk.
A couple of things about the sixth national
Monopoly tournament held this week at the
Corcoran Art Gallery did hold my attention,
however.
1. There were no space invaders zapping
St. James Place.
2. At no time did Pac-Man threaten to
gobble up Marvin Gardens, although Jerome
Dausman of Arlington, Va., the ultimate win
ner, did a pretty good job of it.
It took Dausman, the District of Columbia
champion, a little more than two hours to
polish off four other finalists. Which, by some
standards, is moving right along.
According to the Guinness Book of Re
cords, the longest Monopoly game ever play
ed lasted 51 days. I, frankly, probably would
have started yawning after the first fortnight.
If Monopoly, invented in 1933, is not the
granddaddy of all board games, it at least
occupies a high limb on the family tree. Yet in
this era of gung-ho promotion of video
games, a surprisingly large number of young
people are Monopoly masters.
During a break in the action, or what passes
on pages
for action at a Monopoly tournament, I asked
an eliminated contestant, 15year-old Troy
Dunn of Dover, Del., to fill me in on some of
the fine points.
Here are some of the points he made:
— The game is about 60 percent luck.
(Another young state champion, seventh-
grader Ricky Wooster of Billings, Mont., esti
mated the luck factor at 90 percent.)
— Schoolboys who excel at arcade games
are bigger hits with girls than boys who excel
at board games.
— President Reagan probably would not
rank was a world class Monopoly player.
(“Look what he did to the economy,” young
Troy commented, exhibiting perhaps an inci
pient political bias.)
Most of the younger players I talked with
confided that they really preferred video
games. Possibly the latter games are easier to
relate to. Anyway, I asked a tournament offi
cial whether Parker Brothers, the Monopoly
copyright holder, had any plans to go elec
tronic.
“We feel that television would take away the
social atmosphere that Monopoly creates,” he
replied, somewhat haughtily.
Later, however, he told me the company
may one day enter the arcade field with a
game that preserves the form and “spirit” of
Monopoly.
For what it may be worth, the tournament
was held in a section of the gallery devoted to
traditional, or lifelike, paintings.
In Monopoly, “Vermont Avenue” still has a
depressionlevel $100 price tag. Which isn’t
terribly lifelike. That sum would hardly buy a
of time
blue chip in today’s Atlantic City casino:
Indeed, most Monopoly prices pjf 1
are closer to a teenage player’s wee|lj
wance than to ocean resort property,
©1982 by NEA. Inc
‘Next time around, I want to be HI
you — protected from life’s realities'