Iacocca and Ueberroth

Michael Kinsley (Editorial Pages, Nov. 18) tars Lee Iacocca’s interest in fostering labor-management-government cooperation as “fascist” because it resembles the corporate state. By that twisted logic, Los Angeles has a “fascist” transportation system because its freeways resemble Hitler’s autobahns.

It is possible that tripartite industrial policy could stifle competition, as Kinsley fears. But it is also possible that such policy could encourage competition by shifting resources to newer industries less painfully than has been general practice. It is these costs of adjustment--not fascism--that gives rise to anti-competitive pressures. Surely it is possible to discuss such issues without resorting to unwarranted smears.

DANIEL J.B. MITCHELL

Santa Monica

Mitchell is director of the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations.