Readers write: Have things changed since the '70s and '80s?

Remembering the ’70s

Just wanted to drop a line to say how much I enjoyed the Dec. 27 cover story, “Bell-bottoms and inflation: The ’70s are back.” I’ve been fascinated to see conversations in the media about “malaise” in the United States, echoing President Jimmy Carter’s infamous address to the nation.

What heartens me are the memories of growing up in that period, hearing the complaints ambient in the press and wondering why everyone thought the times were so rotten. Kids like us saw opportunities to make things better, not an era of retrenchment. Our reference points were the here and now, not romanticized memories of yesterday’s dreaming. Indeed, the decades that followed were – for better or worse, perhaps – a rather fun era, hardly the end of the road so many were expecting. They set us on an unambiguously upward trajectory and enabled us to draw closer as a world than we could have imagined in the ’70s.

It is hard to believe that others aren’t thinking similar things today, too – preparing for a better future and assured by the understanding that if you can imagine things getting better, they most certainly can. 

But I admit that for the moment, I do wish someone would seize the moment and bring back the Chevrolet El Camino.

David D. Brown
Austin, Texas

Moral economics?

“Economics 101: More college classes bring moral debates to the surface,” from the Dec. 6 issue, reminded me of two lessons I learned in my youth.

Before I had selected a university major, in the early 1980s, I took introductory finance, thinking I might pursue a business degree. In one of the first classes of the semester, the instructor asked the class what the primary objective of a chief financial officer was. The answer: maximize stockholder profit. Surely that must be incorrect, I thought to myself. I raised my hand and challenged the professor’s assertion. Product improvement? Customer satisfaction? Employee satisfaction? No, none of that mattered, unless it improved the return on investment.

Several years later, I was the employee of a publicly traded company. Management had established “process improvement” reviews in all departments – justification for layoffs. We employees learned that 100 of our colleagues would be sent packing. Later that day, I read in the newspaper that the CEO would “exercise his stock options.” He pocketed millions in additional dollars because the stock price jumped as soon as the layoffs were announced.

I have since left the corporate world, but the injustice still makes me angry. I hope that the next generation of economists and chief financial officers will include in their analysis and advice the impact on others who are just as hardworking and deserving as the stockholders.

Rusty Wyrick
Ghivizzano, Italy

Beauty and simplicity

The Dec. 27 article “For designer William Morris, beauty was no luxury” is simply exquisite. There is no other way to describe it. April Austin is a writer of great talent. She has brought Morris to life and focused our attention on the higher need of humanity to include beauty and simplicity in our everyday lives. 

This article on Morris captures the spirit of the man and the spirit of reporting on him. It’s as far removed from a dry dissertation as one could possibly get. The article has enriched my day and my thinking, and for that reason I will be revisiting it. Thank you so much!

Auriel Wyndham Livezy
Lake Forest, California