Aerospace Job Losses in State

The report on the massive collapse of the aerospace industry poses a major challenge and an opportunity not only for the Los Angeles community but for the nation: to develop a bold plan for reconversion to a civilian, truly market-driven economy.

Or is the alternative to have another war? Is that the only way to keep the U.S. economy going and the work force fully employed? If so, it would have to be a big war. Even Desert Storm--costly as it was--did not make a significant dent in the inventory of military hardware.

The debate over reconversion can easily get bogged down over details. What it requires first of all is political will.

Have we forgotten that we haven’t really had a free-market economy for at least half a century? Even the best-intentioned programs of the Roosevelt New Deal failed to bring the U.S. all the way back from the ravages of the Wall Street crash of ’29. It took the outbreak of World War II a decade later to put men (and women) to work on three shifts on the aircraft assembly lines at Lockheed and the shipyards in San Pedro.

Then came the Cold War and a national security economy fueled by defense spending. Now we exhort the new nations of the former East Bloc to try the free market. Do we have the courage to practice what we preach?

SAUL HALPERT

Van Nuys