Conventional wisdom says federal
economic
planning
won't work -- but private corporate
planning,
in search of lowest cost, highest
profit,
and least attention to equality and
environmental imperatives, works best for
all
citizens.
Just
looking at the goals of private planning
proves it
is
conventional ignorance not con-
ventional
wisdom.
Comes a
war, and conventional wisdom
demands
federal planning for the economy,
the war
fighting, and all necessary post-war
security
structures.
Now we are
at war and Bush is reminded
of
his
father's political failure -- for being
blind
to the
economic needs of voters and
nations. "It's the economy stupid,"
echoes
down the
corridors of lost and found power.
Yet our President today has not put us
into
a economic
war planning mode to correct the
abuses of
globalization and to make a best
effort to
win the war and the votes that will
follow
it.
It would be
irresponsible to rely on commercial
civillian
profit, and the loans and taxes flowing
from that
source, to finance the kind of victory
we
must achieve -- a victory his father never
won.
What is his
problem? What is ours?
John
Gelles