Produce and Perish?

Should the most productive nation in history continue to produce so lavishly? A call for a full-scale debate on the point has now come from Russell E. Train, chairman of President Nixon's Council on Environmental Quality. Last week Train voiced, on his own hook, the toughest line yet to come from a Nixon Administration official. "Most of us march to the tune of 'Produce or Perish,' and this has helped make of Americans a nation of high achievers," he told the Los Angeles World Affairs Council. "But with all of the benefits from continued economic growth, as a people we are beginning to question whether more is really better."

Recalling the widely discussed Club of Rome report (TIME, Jan. 24), which predicted that the present thrust of economic and population expansion would end in disaster within the next century, Train emphasized the "fundamental validity" of the doubts that have been raised about the desirability of continued growth. He picked out several areas for special scrutiny, not least the present distribution of income. President Nixon himself had said in a State of the Union message that Americans should seek quality, not quantity, in their lives. Still, Train thought his remarks "might make some waves" in the White House. The question he raised is already making waves throughout U.S. capitalism.

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