Instability

The Dec. 7 Times seemed full of writers deploring the loss of personal value and the growing fear of economic instability in a world-wide, competitive market. Different writers offered different opinions, but they all reflected the real sense of unease felt by all of us.

This is what I think is happening: As the numbers of people and labor-saving machines have exploded over the last 40 years, the value of individual workers has necessarily fallen. We are all subject to an impersonal economic law: Value rises with scarcity and falls with abundance.

Success, as measured by numbers, has driven down individual value and we feel its loss with increasing pain.

WILLARD OLNEY

Hesperia