MEMO FROM TO:
J. LEDERBERG
GENETICS DEPARTMENT

STANFORD UNIVERSITY
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA

TX

RC cologists have begun to persuade America o- 29

RO much of the economic growth we had re-
s net income is actually the exploitation of ‘7 6

resource, the common envirgnment. The

 

MAR 36 1970

imply that growth is nothing but exploita-

 

: must, I suppose, be producing ten times as much.

Dear Senator Allott:

I really enjoyed and admired your
treatment of this subject as it appeared
I might
that the sentence marked
was in part addressed to the policies
you so successfully cultivated with res-
pect to the rollback of NSF funding in the
89th Congress -- believe me they have been
very slim encouragement to the kind of

in the Congressional Kecord .
admit, however,

(3)

t industrial capitalism would be inviable if
o nourish itself on real growth instead of
the earth; they say it will never voluntari-
nder its power and prerogative to pollute
fit. Despite the untimely survival of the -
tion tax allowance, these ancient charges
answered by progress such as the income
regulated stock exchange, powerful labor
ind antitrust laws. Environmental law, and
re within our reach too. :

iy of our fears are fed by the unjustified .

"post-industrial" technological development m” of the power industry and mass-

we both view as absolutely indispensable
to the further progress of the nation.

These are, of course, complicated
questions that have many sides. I earnestly
hope we may have‘the means to facilitate
communication
that can help lead to a more productive

the essential "cross-cultural"

assignment of priorities.

Yours sincerely, Th

4 Steere. (of 1/6?

eeaspeue dA LAK THR FREE WED Clvusis by uot vUuL

economic gains to meet our real needs and to antic-
ipate those of a new generation. The condition of
our cities and the relic of poverty tell us otherwise.

‘The GNP, as economists have always pointed

“out, is itself a technical artifact that tells verv little
of the real standard of living. By the conventional
~ accounting, it costs, and is somehow therefore
.. worth,

ten times as much to maintain a garden in
Chicago as in Cuernavaca. And if we hire a
hundred policemen or soldiers, instead of ten, we

eal

-s of low-technology products who see an

multiplication of present patterns of con-.
1. In fact, the cost of power has begun to

the first time in decades. This, together .
re sophisticated lines of products promises

er our total energy needs — a computer

5 far less power than a steam shovel; and
onic or microfilmed newspaper could help

_ the forests.

Senator Gordon Allott (Rep-Colo.) has

out, we will not pass through the industrial

m twice. The post-industrial, “technology

onomy will have to give greater concern to
than its natural resources.

_LLany (Ode 0-4)

echnology can also find an “ex-
(and profitable)challenge in the
is and remedy of pollution itself.
rach and tame that high technology re-”
's heavy, cpntinued investment of capital }
- ation as well as in hardware. Wasteful mis- |
—
ns in other spheres are then all the more
‘or example, we must indeed defend our-
nut every dollar spent in a futile war or in
. strategic systems is a mortgage on the
of our life and even our military security
WwW. of : “oe

The Rockefeller Commission could do an im-
portant service by re-analyzing the growth or de-
cline of our real national product, taking account of
the depreciation of our environment and the cost
of restoring it. We could then calculate the rate of
population growth our economy can support, on
the same terms as we press such calculations on
others. ots a
.. Washington Post es ye
This communication relates
to a column "Science & Man"
distributed weekly by the

Washington Post.

‘ Joshua Lederberg

Prof. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
School of Medicine
Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305