THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310313
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Americans cannot continue to put their faith into entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security in the same manner they have in the past, said Robert Samuelson, an award-winning journalist who writes on economic issues.
Speaking at a luncheon meeting Monday in Norfolk, Samuelson said Americans run the risk of drifting along until national budget problems culminate in a crisis or unttil Congress acts to impose drastic, arbitrary cuts on programs that Americans value.
This dilemma has emerged from an affluent postwar society in which Americans developed an inherent sense of entitlement, said Samuelson, a contributing Newsweek editor and Washington Post columnist.
The modern prosperity of the United States, which may be unprecedented historically, stands in stark contrast to the pessimism and anxiety of many individuals who fear the status of the country and that their children's futures look worse than their own.
``The amount of progress socially and economically is widely unappreciated in America today,'' Samuelson said.
Samuelson addressed the latest U.S. budget resolution and the congressional debate on entitlement program cuts when he spoke at a program sponsored by the Economics Club of Hampton Roads and Old Dominion University.
His comments, couched in the context of the national pessimism and discontent prevalent in society today, are addressed in his book ``The Good Life and Its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement, 1945-95,'' due out in January.
Americans' sense of entitlement, developed from the social programs and prosperity that came after World War II, became part of the ``social and psychological fabric of society.''
Samuelson used the word ``entitlement'' to generally describe personal expectations that people developed of things due to them, such as a secure job, rising prosperity and a comfortable retirement.
They looked to government and corporate America as instruments through which people would receive those entitlements, to ensure a utopian society.
As the seemingly prevalent prosperity of the 1950s and '60s receded, disappointment spread over the inability to reach the goal of a continually progressive society.
``So we blame our institutions and political leaders for not delivering us to the place we thought we were going to get to,'' he said.
Confidence in Congress dropped from 42 percent in 1966 polls to 8 percent in 1984. Faith in the news media fell from 1966's 29 percent to 13 percent in 1984.
Samuelson concluded that Americans' unrealistic vision resulted from misunderstanding that economic growth is not a continual upward spiral and that prosperity is not the solution for all problems. He said that U.S. citizens also put too much faith in government and social engineering.
``The message here is we need to get some perspective on our situation,'' he said.
Implications for corporate America today show another widening paradox. Because of increasing competition, corporate executives will feel less compelled to look out on an individual employee's behalf. At the same time, the productivity of companies, the national economy and other countries will improve.
``What may be bad for workers may be better for countries,'' he said. ``Companies will have to decide between protecting their work force or becoming more competitive.'' by CNB