Recession and U.S. Decline

What trash! The problems of America in the 1990s are simple enough to define, and the reasons for those problems are equally simple to understand. America is the world’s leader--regardless of the doom-and-gloom media and left-wing “intellectuals” such as Bellah and Adams.

America leads the world in agriculture production. Our farming methods are studied by every nation in the world. For the past 50 years our greatest engineers, scientists, chemists and technicians have devoted their time to the development of instruments of war--and we have the finest military equipment of anyone, anywhere. We lead the world in mainframe computers, telecommunications, space exploration, aircraft production and--yes--automobiles. The idea that America is somehow crumbling is rubbish. The thought that our government cannot inspire and lead is preposterous.

Can we do better? Of course. America is in transition. We are not appreciating the so-called “peace dividend” because we must make the painful shift from military production and planning to consumer-goods production. California’s aircraft and space technology will produce the mass-transit systems of tomorrow and the cars, and the planes--and maybe even TV sets and VCRs.

Contrary to the gloom-and-doom “economic experts,” who spout their nonsense in the media, I think the 1990s will be years of great growth, prosperity and peace. Bellah and Adams are making the same mistakes in their thinking as did President Carter during his presidency and as the Germans and Japanese made in the late ‘30s. There is no “malaise” in our country, only an impatience to do more, to reach higher, to achieve a better life.

WILLIAM R. HUGGINS

Fullerton