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ever makes a nickle, build the capital intensive factories first-and
when that occurs they will drive the rest of the world out of business.
That's precisely what they did in automobiles; it is precisely what
they did in steel; and it's precisely what they're planning to do in
semiconductors. Now, what is the American answer? You can 't say,
"Let the market work," because the Japanese will run you ou t of the
market. And you can't say, "Keep the Japanese out of the American
market" (which you could of course do), because then they will
conquer the rest of the world, and what are you exporting?
I
would
argue that the Japanese are going to force us towards some sort of
national coordination. They forced steel out of business, but that
wasn't a tremendous tragedy, since steel is a dying industry. But
when they start forcing your growing, leading industry out of
business, that 's an absolute disaster.
EUGENE GOODHEART: By national coordination, you mean heavy
government intervention.
LESTER THUROW:
It
would not be fair to say that the Japanese
government was intervening in the sense of doing things that
Japanese industry didn't want done. They are simply supporting
industry, partly because of that 20 percent savings rate which goes
into government banks, which in turn invest in the country as a
whole. So they have high growth opportunities. And they are
moving into those areas faster than the private market would move
into them.
EUGENE GOODHEART: What are the bad consequences of the Japanese
economic system?
LESTER THUROW:
It
is not anything women would find attractive-they
playa very secondary role in the Japanese labor force. Dan Bell is
right, too-there is a group of union workers who get the benefits
I
have described and a group of contractual workers and small
businessmen who do not get those kinds of benefits. Also a lifetime
job gives you the security to produce more, but you cannot quit
because nobody else would hire you. There is no such thing as
moving from Harvard to Yale. You can't increase your income
either.
ROBERT NOZICK: So the incentives that you were talking about for
increases in productivity are just spread evenly among the work
force.
LESTER THUROW: Well, they do it on a teamwork basis; it may not be
the whole plant, but it is never given to an individual.
EUGENE GOODHEART:
It
seems to me that you 've said why we couldn't
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