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Washington Monthly, July, 1999 by Charles Peters

The Scent of a Rose * Cheapskate Chic * Pornography 101 * The Casket Store * Predatory Pricing

Twenty years ago more than three-fourths of the members of Congress were veterans. Today the figure has dwindled to one-third. This means a Congress that is less knowledgeable about military matters and issues affecting veterans. And it is additional evidence that the people who have the power in this country are not those who have felt an obligation to serve it.

Remember the scent of a rose? I hope you do, because the memory may be all we have left. The scientists have reduced or eliminated the fragrance of roses and other flowers in the interest of selective breeding. Flowers have been bred "for color, size, and shelf life without any attention to scent," a Purdue University horticulturist recently explained to Joyce Howard Price of The Washington Times. In the process floral scent is fast disappearing.

This reminds me of what happened to melons and tomatoes when the scientists began experimenting in order to make them better withstand the rigors of shipping. Their mouth-watering taste was lost.

This makes you worry about what science will do if it starts breeding people. They will surely be attractive and durable--but will probably lack all the distinctive qualities that make human beings interesting, even delightful.

I'm indebted to my old friend Morton Mintz, one of the truly great investigative reporters, for pointing out a curious news judgment by The Washington Post and The New York Times. On June 2, the World Bank released a report saying that, as a result of the economic crisis in Asia and its aftermath, the number of people living on less than $1 a day will reach 1.5 billion by the end of this year--that's 1.5 billion human beings, each struggling to survive for 24 hours on less that we spend for a ride on the subway. The Times thought this news only worth page C-7. The Post didn't run it at all.

I have a friend who is a university president. His name is Douglas Bennet. He is the father of James Bennet, who worked here before he went to The New York Times. Against my advice, Doug became the president of Wesleyan University. I said there's too much fund-raising and too much possibility for getting into hot water for things you didn't do. I don't know if the fundraising part has come true but the innocent hot water has been a case of total immersion. On May 8, he woke up to read a story in the Hartford Courant that revealed Wesleyan had a course requiring students to create their own work of pornography. One student submitted a film that focused on a man's eyes while he was masturbating. Another filmed a female student in sexual bondage.

I have great sympathy for Doug. How was he to have known this sort of thing was going on? After all, as Andrea Billups of The Washington Times points out in her story about the episode, and as anyone who ever attended college will understand, not a single student complained.

When the columnist Matthew Miller worked at OMB during the early Clinton years, he was such a deficit hawk that when you had lunch with him you had to resign yourself to listening to at least a twenty-minute lecture on the importance of reducing the federal budget. So when Matt says "not-to -worry" about the size of a budget item, I pay attention. And he says, "there is no Social Security problem--at least none that requires abrupt action. Higher productivity means faster growth, which increases the size of the pie from which the boomers' golden years will be funded" Until productivity, which recently has been growing at four percent, trends steadily downward, we have time to ponder what long-range social security reforms are most desirable. This may be one of those cases where procrastination is the prudent course.

"More people are getting in the way of disaster," explains Harold Brooks, a researcher at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla. What he means is that more people are choosing to live in the places most likely to be hit by floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, or hurricanes. Does it make sense for the tax-payers to reward this choice by paying compensation for losses incurred during a disaster that should have been anticipated when the choice was made?

To Get an idea of the wealth sloshing around Manhattan, consider that twenty years ago it had just three fancy food stores--Balducci's in the Village, Dean & DeLuca in SoHo, and Zabar's on the Upper West Side. Today, "there are dozens" according to The New York Times," offering a stupefying supply of exotic--and often expensive-food." There are five of the high-end markets within just seven blocks from Broadway and 74th Street. One, Food Emporium, even has, according to the Times, "a green-and-white-uniformed doorman with a gold-braided cap who calls cabs for customers."

Still, the conspicuous consumption news is not all dismaying. In a recent article, "Cheapskate Chic," The Wall Street Journal noted that bargain basement items like $16.99 dresses from K-Mart are suddenly hot with the IPO crowd. Anything that allows people to feel less obsessed with making money and freer to follow their hearts is a good thing and a long time passion of this magazine. But I was depressed to see that the trend isn't just for cheap chic. It's for pairing with those K-Mart dresses outlandishly expensive items like a $65,000 Mercedes and a $215 Kate Spade handbag. However, I will try to view the glass as half full.