A market-oriented economy provides the mechanism to signal needed shifts. We are encouraged to, reject the possibility that someone else can grow peanuts more efficiently than we can. In other words, that we can have foreign aid and foreign trade without foreign competition. Recent trade and payments prob-lems have brought us face to face with the fact that the rules still apply to us. Several reasons have been suggested.
Labor leaders say profits are too high.
Spokesmen for management say wages are too high, labor is unproductive, and taxes are too high. Some say that the rate of investment in new plants is too low. And each faction is likely to be so well satisfied with its own answer that it ignores the answer given by others. In the world of business, it's not uncommon that a firm may find it is operating at a loss. There's no doubt that lack of profits in many domestic industries is a major problem.