The Constitution - economic rights and opportunities

``The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple,'' Roosevelt maintained. They include, he said, ``equality of opportunity for youth and for others, jobs for those who can work, security for those who need it....''

Ringing words - but translating those objectives into realities has not been simple. Proponents of particular economic orientations - whether of the left or right - see solutions differently. And these proponents would seek to embroider their particular ideologies right into the very fabric of the Constitution.

An example on the left might well be the Humphrey-Hawkins full-employment act, signed into law in 1978 by President Carter. The objective of the legislation, sought by union and civil rights groups, was, in part, to declare a ``national policy of promoting full employment.'' The unemployment rate was to be reduced within five years to 3 percent for people aged 20 and over, 4 percent for people 16 and over. Inflation was to be be reduced to 3 percent. Unemployment is now running about 7 percent; inflation last year was well below 3 percent.

But conservative economists have also sought, through legislation (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings) or proposed constitutional amendments, to tie the Constitution to their own orientations. Thus, economist Martin Anderson has proposed that an ``Economic Bill of Rights'' be written into the Constitution. It would include the balanced-budget amendment, a limitation on federal spending, the line-item budget veto, a return to the gold standard, and a ban on wage and price controls. President Reagan has preempted much of the Anderson economic agenda, seeking to adopt various parts through enabling legislation.

Economic goals should not be attached to the Constitution in ironclad terms. Such proposals should be considered individually, on their merits, as President Reagan has done, and, if desirable, adopted as laws that can be revised.

Americans, to their credit, are usually found somewhere in the great middle ground on economic issues. They are solution-oriented, not ideological. They reward sound economic management at the voting booth - while penalizing bad management, as they did in 1932.

The US is far too diverse, too creative, to allow national economic policy to be indelibly sculptured into law - whether in terms of legislation or as clauses within the Constitution itself. Economic policy should be subject to constant revision. At the same time, a compassionate society must not neglect or ignore its less fortunate. Liberal ``safety net'' policies, such as the minimum wage, unemployment insurance, social security programs, can just as fairly be termed conservative, because they help foster a work force that feels itself to have a part in the economic and political system. That the dispossessed, the homeless, and the financially burdened are so often overlooked is more a failure of America's collective vision - of national leadership - than of the American Constitution itself.

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