Changing Economy

* The iceberg is already grinding into the bow plates of the “USS Economy,” but James Pinkerton (“Learn to Earn Is the New Mantra,” Column Right, April 17) and other pundits and executives are busy rearranging the deck chairs.

They say that all we need to do to prepare our economy, our society, for the crunch of the technological revolution bearing down on us at flank speed, with exponential effects, is improve our “educational” system.

The effects of this new industrial revolution are already upon us; improved “training” for jobs that have disappeared into the maw of the computer won’t hack it. There must be economic remedies of equally revolutionary effect. The economy must be reoriented to a consumption mode to preserve purchasing power. If that fails, a system of redistribution of profits from increases in productivity will have to be instituted.

FREDERIC E. PAMP

Santa Barbara