1994-95: REVIEW AND OUTLOOK : ‘94/’95 TRENDS : Need the Keys to ‘95? Try These : Let’s Give <i> Real</i> Help to the Have-Nots

As 1994 was ending, we asked the distinguished members of the Times Board of Advisers to peer ahead into the new year and assess the prospects for the world, national, state and urban economies--and to offer their advice to business people and public leaders for 1995.

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Unemployment is down, inflation is low, the deficit is down and the economy is growing at a faster than usual pace. Yet much of the public is unbelieving, cynical and angry.

The problem is that more than 7 million Americans are still counted as totally unemployed, millions of others are not counted and millions more worry about losing their jobs--and about crime and illness threatening their property and their lives. Real wages are lower while the income of the rich and super-rich is higher. Smaller deficits and low inflation meet none of these real concerns.

The new majority in Congress offers largely demagogic and bogus answers: a capital gains tax cut to make the super-rich still richer; more prisons and death penalties to punish criminals, along with assault weapons for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves; drastic reduction of safety nets for the poor and unfortunate, and a hypocritical and potentially disastrous “balanced-budget” amendment to the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve keeps striving to keep unemployment high and slow the economy.

What we need is a crime-prevention program that will include vastly higher numbers of police on the beat and real protection of children and the family, supported by major investment in human capital: education and training and jobs. We need a simple plan of universal health insurance, such as amending the Medicare program to delete the words “65 and over.” And we need a new commitment by the Administration, Congress and the Federal Reserve to an economy that provides decent jobs to all who are willing and able to work.