‘Shared Sacrifice’ Could Help Economy

One of your articles on rebuilding California, “Diverse Opinions on Where to Focus” (Nov. 29), was a case study of the worst in economic punditry. Nine voices, each from a narrow technical point of view, declaring that the essential ingredient for the recovery of the California economy is: workers’ compensation reform/retraining/rebuilding the infrastructure/tax cuts/defeat of the North American Free Trade Agreement/housing incentives/recovery of faith.

To paraphrase the Clinton campaign slogan: It’s the consumers, stupid! Recessions aren’t caused by workers’ comp fraud, or the lack of a good bridge across the harbor. Recessions are caused by falling consumer confidence. And consumers are aggravated by the insane practice of businesses that respond to falling consumer confidence by firing workers.

Read my lips: Workers by day are consumers by night, and on the weekend, and during the holidays. Every lost paycheck is a lost consumer. No, make that more than one lost consumer. Ten laid-off employees are 10 paychecks out of the economy, and about 10 more in the equivalent reluctance to spend by those not laid off who fear that they’ll be next.

Why not cut hours for everyone when demand dips, instead of shutting a few completely out of the economic cycle while the remainder tremble at their benches and desks, waiting for the next round of pink slips?

“Shared sacrifice” was not the worst idea to surface during the election campaign, and it would surely improve the business (that is, consumer confidence) climate around California.

DAVID KASE

Palos Verdes Estates