European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns the stars and stripes George will Dukakis should use Marx to make his Point pelting Michael Dukakis with unsolicited advice is a Low Lech but High growth Industry so Here goes. He should Ell the country thai the Reagan Bush administration has miraculously made Karl Marx seem Correct this at a moment when there arc no longer any believing marxists cast of the Elbe River. It Man had been scribbling away in the Library of Congress our equivalent of the British museum where Man scribbled in january 1981, As Reagan Nitcy marched into Washington he would have said the class struggle is about to intensify. During the Reagan terror labor will lose ground to capital. Today it can be argued that compensation of labor including wages and Sala Ries and fringe benefits As a share of personal income is at the lowest level of any Peak year meaning any year at a comparable stage of an economic expansion since 1947. The difference is not huge but there it is. And according 1o study for the economic policy Institute by Lawrence Mishel and Jacqueline Simon since 1979 income from property ownership rents dividends interest has risen three times taster than income from work. Dukakis could say in language adapted for mass audiences that we Are wit Nessing the Rise of a rentier society. The political potential for Dukakis is in this fact most people arc not renters. Or More precisely most people do not think of themselves As such. That qualification is necessary because anyone who invested in a pension program is involved through it in the Slock and Bond Market Sand thus has a stake in interest and dividends. Dukakis should stress that to pay the interest component of the 1988 Bud get will require a sum $210 billion equal to approximately half of All the personal income tax receipts. This rep resents As sen. Fat Moynihan d-n.y., hat said a Transfer of wealth from Laporto capital unprecedented in american Flora Lewis the history. Tax revenues Are being collected from average americans the median income of a family of four is slightly under $30,000 and Given to the buyers of . Government Bonds buyers in Beverly Hills Lake Forest Shaker Heights and Grosse Point and Tokyo and Riyadh if a Democrat can t make something of that what Are democrats for preside or but Here Dukakis confronts the prob Lem of being a progressive in an affluent Middle class country. Only a minority of americans a Small and shrinking minority think of them selves As  and the vast majority of that minority is already for Dukakis. Furthermore americans Are pleased to think of themselves As living in a classless society. That implausible be Lief is actually the imperfect expression of two other ideas. One u that almost everyone is in the Middle class. The other is that social mobility is such that with Pluck and Luck almost anyone can make it into the Middle class. The exception to this Rule is the Large semipermanent underclass that seems Imper Vious to social policy but such sentimental ties aside poli tics is about who gels what especially As a result of government action. In the Reagan years a particular social stratum has gotten a lot. The people who get in come from properly have benefited especially from the huge deficits that have put in place a permanent High level of government borrowing that produces High interest rates. For decades deficit spending has been denounced by conservatives As a democratic device for redistributing income to the undeserving poor. The Reagan deficits have with Fine impartiality helped the Rich. Marxists who believe that history Hasan inner logic like to say it is no Acci Dent that whatever happens happens. Infant the kindliness of reaganomics to Ward the property owning class Accord ing to Mishel and Simon the value of the financial assets of More than half of All families in this classless ciely in 1983was Zero or negative they had More debts than assets hat been the Predicta ble consequence of a claw bated policy. The policy is trickle Down economics. Republicans can reasonably argue thata beneficial policy for those at the Bot Tom of the social Heap is a policy that energizes those at the top the invest ing entrepreneurial class that makes the wheels turn in a free society where government docs not run a command econ omy. However that is a politically awk Ward argument to make during a political Campaign even in a democracy As committed to capitalism As this one is. Dukakis might do Well by forcing bus to make that argument. Unto Tan pm Rewt group 3r educational Equality still has far to go in . Us Over  i Dartmouth College has begun in fact there was a High percentage of women be and it reminded me that the Assumption of will term with a we Klong Celebration of its 15th cause it had begun As a teacher training College and at Opportunity in t Over yet. Re Sarv of coeducation. Lower Levels teaching had Lane been considered Sulla this Vinuna us Man in 9 Row interviewed Hanover  fall anniversary. During the opening ceremony which i was privileged to attend Scott Sims the student Leader chosen to address the convocation told me that he plans to apply for a Rhodes scholarship. Did you try for it when you were a senior he asked. He was astonished when i told him no women were accepted when i was finishing College he had Sung with Pride the new Dartmouth Alm Amair song which no longer has anything about French men and indians and includes the lines for the sons fold Dartmouth for the daughters of  apparently some old grads complained when it was introduced but it s taken for granted now. What seems a Long time ago to the current crop i College is really quite recent some things have changed significantly in a generation. A professor remembered that she was one of the first women admitted to the faculty a Little More than 20years ago and then was excluded from the regular faculty lunch of her department because it was quite enough fora woman to be allowed to teach. She could t expect 10 join in discussions ode payment business. A male professor suggested that now the word co education should be considered obsolete. It s just Edu cation. Why Are males at College students and females at College coeds 1 went to Urcla which As a state University was always coeducational and it never occurred to us that it was Odd for Only women to be called  i the Caus Lowe Long d suitable for women. But others were not. Provoked by a High school teacher who urged the class to think of an occupation and to write Ottlo inquire about the necessary preparation i had asked the state department How to apply for the foreign serv ice. That was not Long before world War ii. The answer came with a series of Sample examinations of the Type that had to be passed and a Long letter. U began by explaining that while we Are forbidden by Law to refuse to consider women you will under stand that you will automatically be marked Down 20percent in the  since it added that Only the top 20 percent of those who take the exams would be eligible for appointment obviously a woman would have to be almost perfect on the written tests. Even then it went on for the following 27reasons, it is difficult for us to assign posts to  among the reasons were that some countries did not Welcome women diplomats others might be too dangerous and there was a series of essentially frivolous arguments and cliches. If the letter continued no assignment has Bee made at the end of two years you can reapply and Lake the examinations once More but Only once More. As i started work As a newspaper woman before 1reached the minimum age to apply 1 never found out what might have happened. Nor did i regret it. But Dartmouth reminded me what it was like Mohave to Lake closed doors As a Given. An blocked Opportunity three Young Home i a to interview me for local Media. Each one wanted to know what is it like to be a woman Joum Tisl they did t mean what Isit like to be a woman. They know about that. Do they ask men what is it like to be a Man journalist a Black woman who was escorting me said she understood my irritation. She got the same kind of question on race. What is it like to be a Black journalist what it s supposed to be like is to do your Job like everybody else. The chances have vastly improved for bold of us More for me than for her but then Lama Good Deal older. After All Dartmouth with 40 percent women under graduates and still a top reputation has shown that the adjustment need t be nearly so hard As stubborn tradition tried to make in. Some things Don t change much. The big Campus Issue now is student resentment of a ruling by the Board of trustees that freshmen can t join fraternities or sororities and must await their second year. There s some Hiag to be said for that but even Morelo be said for the idea Hal the Board should include a student representative. The trivial and the Earnest persist Side by Side an they always will. In jerks and fits the society is moving 10 confront responsibilities the big debate about the approach to College Educa Tion remains necessary. Dartmouth reflects that we have come a ways toward being serious about Opportunity and thai we still have a Good Way to go. New Yort Tenet tit a Wyto