We may now summarize several political/economic points
drawn from our analysis of social equity and the new inflation: Our
main conclusion is that because of its primary impact (high prices of
necessity-related items on low- and middle-income groups) and its
secondary impact (the consequences of failure to solve inflation for
overall policymaking, the budget, unemployment, and productivity
growth), direct strategies to reduce inflation in the necessity-related
sectors are an important element in any serious effort to achieve
social justice in the coming decades.

It is likely (beyond price moderation caused by temporary gluts)
that once economic growth resumes we will see a resumption of in-
flation in the 1980s. During the years of the Carter Administration a
broad-based coalition proposed that the "necessities of life" be
made the central thrust of an equitable anti-inflation program which
could also help achieve sustained economic growth. More than 70
consumer, labor, environmental, senior-citizen, and minority or-
ganizations--Consumers Opposed to Inflation in the Necessities
(COIN)--proposed policies to hold down price increases in the four
key sectors. The poll data also shows strong support for direct mea-
sures, including not only wage-price controls, but energy- and food-
price controls, and even rationing. ⁸⁰ If traditional solutions to the
problem of inflation once again falter during the 1980s, if massive
recession is rejected, and if the resulting economic burdens and so-
cial inequities increase, there is likely to be need for a carefully re-
fined list of new policy initiatives. We can expect at some point that
the public will demand that the pain be stopped--and that the econ-
omy be put back to work. Economists who invest their intellectual
capital in the necessary advance-research effort are likely to find
that the returns, both for social equity and overall economic policy,
are substantial.

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