Perot on Education

Perot is being uncharacteristically disingenuous when he states that poor design and poor engineering (of American products) result from a lack of market sensitivity. From his General Motors’ experience, he would know better than most that for decades it was the lament of Detroit’s car designers that they were forced by the salesmen who ran the industry to cut corners on functional design in order to finance an extra strip of chromium here, a plastic what-not there.

In contrast, the United States has preeminence in the world commercial aircraft market precisely because the marketeers were told to stay the hell out of the design office. Not that they needed to be told--most of them are engineers in the first place.

PETER C. PRICE

San Diego