JOHN KENNE TH GALBRAITH 93 



alloys for steel.^ I would say on the whole that The Twentieth Century 

 Fund's approach represents a kind of norm in such studies. 



The President's Materials Policy Commission took a similar al- 

 though slightly more ambiguous position which is worth examining in 

 some slight detail. It began by stating its conviction that economic 

 growth was important and, in degree, sacrosanct. "First, we share the 

 belief of the American people in the principle of Growth." "* (It is 

 instructive to note the commission's use of a capital G. A certain 

 divinity is associated with the word.) Growth in this context means an 

 increasing output of consumers' goods and an increase in the plant by 

 which they are supplied. Having started with this renunciation, the 

 commission was scarcely in a position to look critically at consump- 

 tion in relation to the resource problem, and it did not. 



Yet the PMPC could not entirely exclude the problem of consump- 

 tion from consideration. In the course of its formal recommendations it 

 asked that the armed services in "designing military products, and in 

 drawing up specifications, focus on using abundant rather than scarce 

 materials, and on using less of any material per unit of product where 

 this can be done without significantly affecting quality or perform- 

 ance." And it asked for "greater emphasis on care and maintenance 

 of military equipment and conservation in use and increase[d] scrap 

 recovery of all kinds." ^ But it almost certainly occurred to the able 

 members of the commission that this was straining furiously at the 

 gnat. Why should we be worried about the excess steel in a tank but 

 not in an automobile? What is gained from smaller radar screens if 

 the materials go into larger TV screens? Why should the general be 

 denied his brass and his wife allowed her plumage? There is an obvi- 

 ous inconsistency here. 



As a result the PMPC did venture on. Although it did not support 

 the observation with any concrete recommendation, it did comment 

 with some vigor on present tendencies in consumption. "The United 

 States," it observed, "has been lavish in the use of its materials. . . . 

 Vast quantities of materials have been wasted by over-designing and 



3 J. Frederic Dewhurst and Associates, America's Needs and Resources: A 

 New Survey (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1955). 



4 PMPC, Summary, p. 5. 



5 PMPC, Summary, p. 10. 



