David's Thesis

A sober, freethinking, world-minded citizen is hulking, 24-year-old David Rockefeller, fifth son of John D. Jr. He graduated from Harvard in 1936, went to England to attend the famed, leftish, Rockefeller-supported London School of Economics. Back in New York City he got a job at City Hall as one of Mayor La-Guardia's "interns" in city management, between times took courses at the University of Chicago, worked on a Ph.D. thesis. This week, the university released David's thesis to the public.

Its subject was "Unused Capital Resources and Waste." Its theme: to criticize an economy simply because it has idle machinery and idle men is not fair. Many firms serve themselves and the economy better with high-efficiency, high-capacity machinery run part of the time, than they would by running low-capacity, inefficient machinery more of the time. Most estimates of the "waste" caused by idle capital equipment measure a capitalist economy with a socialist yardstick. To liberal-capitalist Theorist Rockefeller, the goal to strike for, under any form of government, is optimum production achieved at minimum cost.

He is also against monopoly, which (says the thesis) limits production, holds up prices. Appeasing the shade of Grand father John D., he also says that financial and political uncertainty are wasteful too.

David's conclusion: "The summum bonum is to be achieved, therefore, through a maximum of individual freedom of action consistent with behavior which is not predatory, or anti-social."

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