The Market And The Individual (1960s)

[Music] and we ask that you please remain in your seats until the airplane has stopped at the ramp and the engines have been turned off any of you who for the first time in his lifean Peres is visiting the United States back home in Greece he's heard it said that all Americans are rich and he's also heard reports that most Americans are poor and exploited a well- educated person Yan doesn't believe either of these extremes but on the other hand he doesn't know quite what to believe waiting with his wife to meeton and perhaps help him to discover the truth is Howard mccan an American engineer whose company does business with Yan's company back in Greece the MC have spent several days trying to decide just what to show their guest in the short time he'll have for sightseeing like anyone entertaining a foreign visitor they want him to have a good time and see what American life is really like although they're not economic experts the MS hope their visitor will come to share their view that our economic system which is quite different from his produces abundance and a quality of well-being that's evident in the lives of the people in doing this will they be giving Yan penes an accurate picture of America National educational television presents a series of programs analyzing the basic nature and operation of the American Business System with particular emphasis here on the market and the individual this series is made possible by an educational grant from the National Association of Manufacturers and is produced under the editorial control of a committee of economic Educators how do you do my name is Jack Gwyn as most of us would the MCCS are likely to spend a lot of time in the next few days pointing out to their visitor from overseas the physical abundance we enjoy here in America and even before they leave this Airport parking lot they're pointing out how tightly packed it is with personal automobiles one of the more obvious indications of the ability of our market system to mass-produce Goods at prices within the reach of most consumers in characterizing the market system the mccans will eventually explain that it provides freedom of economic choice in most situations that it is an impersonal mechanism through which buyers and sellers generating supply and demand decide what goods will be produced how much of them will be produced and at what prices they'll be bought or sold in most other countries governments play a more prominent role in making these economic decisions most Americans like the M believe our market system leads to Greater abundance and to support their belief the MCS point to the fact that we own far more than our share of nearly everything it's not difficult for them to show their visitor many signs of our physical wealth [Music] oh [Music] PA [Music] Yan Peres has never been in an American Home he'll find that Mrs mccan doesn't have the servants his own wife has back home but she does have many other conveniences that go a long way toward replacing or surpassing them appliances for example Mrs mccan has many machines to help [Music] her machines and more machines a person is born to a Shoemaker he's Apprentice to a Shoemaker here A person can any trade he want but a single household is hardly a fair sample of America Yan knows that statisticians and other Scholars who measure such things as the diffusion of well-being like to back off and take a longer more encompassing view he would too he'd like to know is the McAn family really typical from a library that's heavier on fiction than it is on reference books the mechan managed to dig out some pertinent information item Americans now produce and consume more than onethird of the world's goods and services though they comprise little more than 6% of the world's population and occupy less than 7% of its land area item American factories turn out nearly half the world's manufactured goods and the income of Americans approximates the combined income of all the people living in Europe and the Soviet Union while it certainly is greater than that of all the people of Asia item in comparative purchasing power what an hour's work will buy in America compared with what it will buy in other countries the US has an edge on Canada a considerable advantage over Great Britain and a tremendous advantage over the Soviet Union the MCC feel that while there are many factors involved in bringing about these differences among countries the pattern seems to indicate that greater economic Advantage is found in nations with greater freedom of economic choice International comparisons are but one measuring stick however how does our present State compare with our own past here are Howard's great grand father and grandmother in their wedding tin type this Photograph must have set old James T mccan back a good part of a week's pay for on the average an American worker in his day produced and earned only a fraction of what the average worker produces today when great-grandfather mccan was starting out about 1850 an average hour of Labor produced only 40 cents worth of goods and Services measured in terms of today's purchasing power while today the average worker in America produces 7 and a half times as much and in the interim work has not only become more productive and remunerative but also less burdensome in great-grandfather mcan's Day Men and animals accounted for most of the work performed with men alone accounting for more than 1/8 of all energy used in industry and agriculture today the American worker has power over machines just as his wife does in the home and the machines Supply 99% of America's work energy old Jim mccan a century ago could get out and work 70 hours a week along with his two brothers and all three of them couldn't produce in those 70 hours what one American alone produces in 40 hours today how much harder did Mr and Mrs mcc's ancestors work in the field of housework a professor in Iowa set out to determine to what degree appliances have lightened the housewife's chores he put 15 women through the various tasks involved in taking care of a family's laundry by hand 19th century style respirometers measured their oxygen consumption as they cut soap built fires carried an empty water scrubbed and rinsed the clothes rung them out and hung them on the line just as grandmother did and then the professor asked the same women to go through today's wash day routine sorting the clothes carrying them to an automatic washer placing them inside and setting the proper controls this is certainly easier but exactly how much easier according to the answer on the graph paper Grandma used 12 times more energy in clothes washing than the modern housewife does we'd probably find comparable differences in the amount of work performed in handling most other household operations cooking bathing the children and all the rest thanks to electricity and the labor saving devices it's made possible Yan asked the question earlier is the McAn home typical since nearly all American Homes now are wired for electricity and 90% of them have appliances of some sort it would seem to appear that it is typical a symbol of American abundance but in measuring the contributions of an economic system to the well-being of a people is it enough to consider just the physical abundance it produces judged in terms of automobiles and appliances and the easing of our labor and the increased income we get from it there can be no doubt that in comparison with other people and with our own ancestors we're doing pretty well but is that enough many people here and in other lands do not regard physical abundance as the all important indicator of well-being are there other ways in which our economic system affects the well-being of Americans This is Teddy mccan active sturdy healthy in Poland lands people are often undernourished and must work too hard and too long for what they do get to eat disease is widespread Public Health measures are few and only a limited number of people can obtain proper medical attention here in the McAn home Yan penes is aware of the absence of many physical ailments and disabilities that people in poorer parts of the world accept as something they have to live with in other words even though young Teddy McCain like too many Americans is not as physically fit as he could be and perhaps should be he can still look forward to living 21 more years than his grandfather this increased life expectancy is the product of remarkable advances that have been made in both the quality and availability of medicines and Medical Services these advances can be measured in terms of the number of uh doctors or hospital beds per thousand people in terms of the number of deaths and illnesses from various causes per unit of population and in other ways such as the extension of health insurance coverage to most of our citizens whichever method of measuring is used we Americans while not the healthiest people in the world show up extremely well but physical health like physical abundance is not the whole story either either the market system has an effect on our cultural life also for the great output of goods and services resulting from that system is being achieved with less expenditure of human energy than ever before competition generated by the market system results in a constant quest for better easier ways to produce more of the things people need or want people like the MC's benefit from this productivity in two ways first through increased purchasing power for an hour's work the other way is through increased Leisure there's evidence that about one-third of the gains made by American workers have come in the form of free time while the amount of leisure time available is significant the way in which it's used is also important and will be increasingly so in the future the MC typically devote the largest share of their Le to Pursuits that are more recreational and cultural this includes a great deal of sports both active and passive it also takes in Hobbies such as gardening and Home Improvements many of Howard McCann's fellow workers find it impossible or undesirable to use their free time unremunerative they've taken on second jobs like this man in order to earn additional income to pay for things they value more highly than Leisure a better car or a second car or a better house or better education for their children but most like Howard and his family use their Leisure to broaden their lives to engage in a wide variety of Sparetime activities that put nothing in their pockets for example the Arts music in all forms is so popular in the US that 30 million instruments are now owned by amateurs and there are some 70,000 nonprofessional instrumental organizations across the country Americans demand from music has led to the doubling of the number of symphony orchestras since 1950 and we now spend far more to hear professional musicians than we do to watch baseball games further the pleasures of music no longer are restricted to those who play themselves or go to concerts now thanks to the phonograph television and radio music of professional quality reaches into the home Americans buy recordings at the rate of some $75 million worth a year with nearly half of that amount going for classical selections another indication of the cultural growth of our society may be found in the growing interest in literature in printed information of all kinds it had been thought by some that the spread of radio and television with their ability to bring the world into our living rooms would interfere seriously with our desire to read yet the figures paint a picture that's quite different the fact is that Americans invest more in books today than they did before they acquired TV sets finding time now for both sources of information yes Mrs Getty I'm calling this year about the fresh air fund to send the needy children to Camp you contributed $10 last community activities especially through churches and various charitable organizations are further outlets for the Leisure of many Americans all right through such organizations we contribute in increasing numbers to the Charities and good works we choose offering our time and services to help others among all the effects of the market system upon our society there's one that's more difficult to measure or assess than those considered so far and that's our freedom to travel to move about either for reasons of pleasure or to seek business opportunities Howard mccan travels a good deal in his work but he also covers a lot of miles traveling for pleasure with his family they average more than 15,000 m a year and have visited many parts of the country toon perides this is remarkable he's known many people who were born grew up and died without ever having stirred more than 10 miles from their places of birth in many parts of the world a person's life and his opportunities are limited to the distance he can walk in a single day while many Americans too find it difficult or undesirable to take advantage of the mobility they could have the majority including the MCS are always was ready to grab their hats and go Howard traveled halfway across the country to go to college because that was where he could get the best financial assistance after graduation Howard didn't limit himself to his hometown or to his college town when he looked for a job and when he found it it was with a big firm with plants and offices all over the country to move up in the organization he's had to be ready to go where the company need needs him most in effect Howard is willing to transfer his own human capital the investment in his training and education to another place where it'll bring a higher rate of return incidently it's largely his education that's given Howard mobility of Another Kind one that permits him to move up in the world to increasingly better jobs this mobility in America stands in striking contrast to a man's prospects in less developed Societies in such societies human labor was and is of virtually no value except in terms of the brute force it can exert land is the important thing the chief source of wealth and it's passed on from one generation to the next within the same family along with the exclusive inherited privilege of land ownership goes the privilege of becoming educated and having a chance for an interesting rewarding future but in the United States we formed a very different kind of society land here is relatively insignificant much more important is control of capital and this control is not monopolized by a few families it tends to move about among families between Generations now one reason for this transfer of control over capital is that human capital in the form of education is so widely available and becoming more available as School enrollment steadily climbs in 1870 only the very fortunate young man could hope to go to college today qualified children in most families look forward to a college degree in the normal course of events in Howard's family no one had been to college before he made it and it was not easy for him he worked a full 40-hour week as an elevator operator throughout his college career and as a result it took him an extra year to get his engineering degree Howard's children may have to make a comparable effort to complete college but after graduation it'll be easier for them than it was for him to find their place in the world without regard for inheritance one reason is the changing nature of business the large Diversified companies with their decentralized managements are now increasingly important such companies need large numbers of intelligent highly skilled people the paths that lead to these positions are as easily followed by sons of farmers Miners and garment workers as by sons of business Proprietors and executives of course there's no guarantee that those in modest circumstances will make it to the top of the Business and Professional world but even for the many who don't economic progress in America makes possible benefits once reserved for the few at the very top the goods and services adequate food decent housing Health travel and the like that once distinguished the privileged now are enjoy enjoyed by most of the population and a major reason for this is that much industrial Innovation aimed at benefiting the consumer has helped the lower and middle inome groups more than it's helped those at the top of the economic scale traditional differences between the rich and the poor are disappearing at one time our population could be represented as a sort of pyramid now in this pyramid the great bulk of the people were at the bottom the poor not so large a group here in the center the middle class and still smaller was the group in the upper economic bracket the rich now today our population is better represented as a diamond now now in this diamond comparatively few people the very poor are on the bottom still relatively few Rich here at the top with a great bulk of us making up the middle class in non-material terms then as well as in terms of material possessions a great mass of the American people can rightly be said to receive benefits still considered unusual even unattainable in many other parts of the world among these is the freedom of choice inherent in the market system for the most part if an American doesn't approve of a product or service a job or place to live He's not forced to accept it there's usually an alternative available he can select he can also select a way of life the market system has buil into it the means of bringing its benefits to Great numbers of people even including some they like beatniks who don't care to have anything to do with the system themselves and there are others who do not strive for the greatest possible rewards available to them under the laws of supply and demand talented and dedicated teachers and artists for example who are content with far less than their abilities would bring them in the competitive commercial Market because they prefer their own version of The Good Life under the market system and the freedoms that must accompany it a man is at Liberty if he wishes to Chuck it all to become a hunting guide and work only a few months a year only with the high productivity of the market system can an economy support such nonconformity this is not to say of course that the market system has brought the Millennium solving the problems of every everyone for all time a look around us will show many people who've not enjoyed the benefits of the market system members of minority groups for example widows orphans the sick and disabled the market system is not perfect it does not provide for the needs of everyone there are many problems that are not Market problems the law of supply and demand is not likely to contend with a forest fire or or a soaring divorce rate we should not expect more of it than it's capable of providing there's plenty of room for government action to take care of problems that do not tend to solve themselves through the market but it is important that we assign to the market the things it can accomplish for as we've seen it accomplishes those things very well have the M's given neon perenties an accurate portrayal of the benefits of our market system whether they have or not is probably less important toon than it is to the MC themselves and to the rest of us who live under that system so it is up to them and to us to decide [Music] this is National educational television