A NEW BREED OF HORATIO ALGERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303420006-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: May 23, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303420006-5
:L1; APPEARED
ON PAGE
Lewis H. Lapham
A New Breed
Of Horatio
Algers
when the United States agreed the
other day to protect American automobile
interests against raiding by the Japanese,--
hardly anybody had , the poor taste to
mention the Republican doctrine of get-.
ting government off people's backs.
Suddenly, government was neither too
big nor too rich to do a favor for a friend.:
Apologists for a de facto quota on Japa
nese cars explained that the entrepre-
neurial spirit in the United States was in.
a sickly condition. Until such time As, the_
invalid was back on his feet, government=-
would do what was necessary to arrest k;
slackening of enterprise and prevent fui
Cher withering of the national soul. ' ----
Much the same explanation accompa
nies the administration's defense of itsn
budget. The country must reduce taxes.
and curtail federal spending because the
"spirit that made this nation great sup-..
posedly has drifted away on the, wind-
like smoke from a pioneer's campfire.
Although at odds with the facts, Presi=-Z
dent Reagan presented the same line''oC'
gibberish as one of the major themes of
his campaign. Various troubled authoci?..
ties-captains of industry, professors ox.,
economics, critics in residence.--prq;;,
vided a steady supply of reports b.6-`
moaning losses of productivity, of profit,;
of adventurous capitalism. Except when'-?
'talking about first-round draft choices? ir&-
the NFL, the authorities describe a'naw~
tion of timid wage_ slaves, herded'r
through the cattle pens of corporationNm
stumbling into swamps of bureaucratic.'
regulation, too intimidated by taxes and.
regulation to take the old-fashioned'riske"
necessary to lay up treasure not only iii a
Heaven but also in Florida real estate." ..'A
Listening to these-anthems of despair, I .
wondered what company the Republicaips,
might be keeping. Perhaps they believed-
the revelations of The New York Review-
' of Books, or maybe' they. had heard too;:
many of Jimmy Carter's sermons. ; d
THE WASHINGTON POST
23 May 1981
My own limited observations suggest'
that-the entrepreneurial spirit never has-
enjoyed more robust health. Over the,
last 10 years, the country has given rise,
to a generation of freebooters as merci-
less, artful and rapacious as any of its
predecessors in the chronicle of Amer-
ican greed. It is hard to get through an
airport or hotel lobby without being ac-
costed by somebody with a deal: in silver
futures, minimalist painting, fried
chicken franchises, genetic engineerit
or supply-side politicians.
Within the profession, Venture Capital
Journal keeps the box score and reports
that in 1980 the record sum of $900 mil-
lion appeared in venture capital markets.
?The drug trade prospers, and so db port
nographers. Cash transactions conducted
out of sight of the IRS are estimated to be
$150 billion per annum in an "under-
ground economy." Every, week the news-
papers announce yet another merger of as-
sets worth as much as the gross national
product of Peru. Promoters of cable televi-
sion scribble deals on the backs of en-,
velopes and hand out road. maps' to: El
'Dorado. Like speculators in 19th-century
railroads, the cable operators have -ae-
quired a government subsidy-in the form
of a broadcasting license, instead of. a right
of way through the center of town or
100,000 acres in California-and they seek
to establish local monopolies.
Never has there been a time so ripe
with promises of extravagant return on
investment. Why then do the authorities
still insist upon so bleak a rhetoric? Per-
haps they are objecting to a disorderly
redistribution of wealth. Perhaps the
wrong sort of people seem to be making.
all the money_
The present generation of promoters
sells theories and services instead of
goods, charging exorbitant freight rates
for transporting images rather than for
shipping wheat or hogs. The, cites
swarm with agents, lawyers, lobbyists,
consultants, analysts and middlemen of
a disposition sufficiently predatory to
have done credit to the plucky heroes of
Horatio Alger. They reap immodest
profits from manufacturing expensive
paper-tax shelters, joint ventures, buy-
outs, federal licenses, tax exemptions,
i bankruptcies, foundation studies, polii-
cal slogans, movie rights, acquisitions,
takeovers and CIA estimates of'-the
Now that it has become easier to
achieve a market result through the
manipulation of symbols and images-
the writing of legislation as well as the
minting of celebrity-even members ,.of
Congress unknown to FBI agents
dressed up like sheiks can think of them-
selves as entrepreneurs. .
The entrepreneurial spirit in the United
States has not vanished; rather,' it has
shifted its field of advantage. The resent-
ment of older and more settled interests--
among them the automobile and' steel in-
dustries, the television networks and .the
established religions-expresses itself in
prophecies of economic and mora' col-
lapse. Not being privy to the new division
of spoils, advocates of the old capitalist
order argue that God is dead.
01981. Network News, Inc.
The writer is editor of HarPer's
biaga~ne.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303420006-5