Letters: Letters: Governments Need a Culture Change

To the Editor:

Re “The Art of Bargaining, So Lost Upon Washington” (Economic View, Jan. 8), in which Richard M. Thaler suggested ways to deal with a malfunctioning Congress:

The column recommended that our legislators read Thomas Schelling’s 1956 essay, “An Essay on Bargaining,” whose theme is that the key to success in a negotiation is the ability to commit to a future course of action. Although that may be educational, it would address only one-time bargaining situations, not the overall malaise in Congress and, by extension, in many state and local government bodies.

Members of Congress have been elected to perform a function, which they are far from fulfilling. The much more important question is how to return Congress to a working mode, in which the needs of the country are being regularly and routinely addressed. In my view, that might require a culture change — both inside and outside Congress.

This challenge may well require a culture that rewards cooperation and compromise, which are sorely absent today. It’s a tall order, but one that is worth thinking about.

Michael Dishon, Ph.D.

Century City, Calif., Jan. 9

The User Is the Judge

To the Editor:

Re “Defining Words, Without the Arbiters” (Novelties, Jan. 1), which looked at the online dictionary Wordnik, and how it presents all information it finds about words:

There may indeed be a public perception that a dictionary is the authority on language. But the linguistic point of view is that users of the language, not self-appointed arbiters, are its ultimate authorities. There is no single “correct” way when it comes to an ever-evolving semantic system. Wordnik has it right. Susan Behrens

Brooklyn, Jan. 1

The writer is a professor of communication sciences and disorders at Marymount Manhattan College.

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