Mikhail Gorbachev

It always amazes me how confidently economists predict the future of the Soviet economy and discuss the economic understanding of President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Charles Wolf Jr. seems to think that the only way for the Soviet Union to proceed is to become a carbon copy of the U.S. (Commentary, Sept. 12). He claims that Gorbachev’s remarks about socialism show a lack of understanding of market systems.

There is another possibility. Perhaps Gorbachev sees market systems all too clearly. Perhaps he sees the massive problems the U.S., the greatest market system, is faced with. Perhaps he sees the major problems we have with drugs, crime, our trillion-dollar deficit, our savings and loan scandal, our 30 million in poverty, our homeless, our highest homicide rate in the industrialized world, our trivialized elections. Perhaps he hopes that there is a better way than the failed command economy of their past and the sickness we keep sweeping under the table. Perhaps that explains his caution.

Or does Mr. Wolf think that our system is so perfect that it can’t be improved?

RICHARD FOY

Redondo Beach