Scared don't spend As rich get richer, poor get poorer and jobs vanish

AS IF POWERED by a mighty hymn to profit, the nation's economy soars toward Christmas 1995.

But retailers aren't singing.

Notwithstanding the joy on Wall Street, rank-and-file Americans are failing again in their patriotic duty to shop.

"Disappointing" reports flow in from the malls as if shopkeepers could have reasonably expected brisk buying, as if the generic U.S. citizen is flush, full of "consumer confidence" and poised to obey every impulse.

Daily business page headlines might have disabused them of such hopes:

"AT&T Corp. offers buy outs to 77,800 managers"

Another of these grim stories came last Friday, reporting more disquieting news for Maryland workers: Having purchased CBS, Westinghouse might sell some of its Maryland-based operations. Since 1988, Westinghouse has laid off 8,500 workers in Maryland, cutting its workforce here in half.

If the latest threat was at all veiled, a Westinghouse worker translated: "When companies buy companies, they usually lay off a lot of people."

Laid off or not, the threat of layoffs chills the shopping impulse. Better not buy that new TV. Bill can get another year out of his coat. Houses? Cars? Forget it.

And this may not be the really bad news. The holiday shopping statistics are just wrapping for this year's lump of consumer coal. What's happening at the malls this Christmas has been happening, after all, all year round.

In the long run, the so-called re-structuring of corporations will make the system stronger, says Joseph G. Carson, chief economist for Dean Witter, Discover Inc. In time, he predicts, income will rise smartly for workers who are included along with management in various profit-sharing plans.

"In the end, we are better off, but there is this transition period we have to go through. I think the next five or 10 years will be good for the worker as companies regain competitive position," he said.

Not this year, though.

"The typical American family is living on less than it did 15 years ago. Most of us are getting nowhere," Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich has observed, echoing many others.

"AlliedSignal slashes 3,000 jobs"

"Savings are being dissipated," says Edward N. Wolff, an economics professor at New York University. "The average family has only enough to keep it going for six months at poverty-level consumption. You can see, with that kind of resources, people are reluctant to make any major purchases. That's why spending is down. The economy is growing, but spending is not."