The Week

■ The Soviet rulers understand the power of symbolism, and the word. That is why particularly egregious offenders against their system, once they have been denounced sufficiently to put them away, tend not to remain in the public eye as devil-images; instead, they become unpersons, their names never mentioned, their pictures never shown. This has been the fate of Anatoly Scharansky. Indeed, so thorough has his unper- soning been that Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon apparently feared the Soviet Mission to the United Nations was in danger of forgetting him altogether. Fortunately, the classy residence of the delegates from the classless society is within the boundaries of Mr. Simon’s borough, so he was able to do something to forestall this amnesia: he renamed the portion of West 255th Street on which the Mission’s compound is located One Scharansky Square and, with Soviet Jewish émigrés and others interested in the cause of freedom looking on, climbed up and personally installed the new street sign. Oleg Troyanov- sky, head of the Soviet delegation, was not amused. But he may have been edified.

■ Unemployment is awesomely high. How to cut the figure in half? 1) Four per cent of the population now seeking jobs could cease to seek them, which would have the effect of reducing the working percentage of the population to the level of I960. 2) Employees in underutilized industries (e.g., automobiles, steel) could accept wage and salary reductions of 20 per cent. 3) Corporate earnings not distributed as dividends but reinvested in modernization could be made tax- exempt. 4) The minimum-wage law could be repealed. 5) The first 12 months of work by any previously unemployed person could be made immune from Social Security tax. Or, alternatively, 6) reflate the economy, and tax everyone the 10 to 30 per cent resulting yearly inflation.

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■ The Soviet rulers understand the power of symbolism, and the word. That is why particularly egregious offenders against their system, once they have been denounced sufficiently to put them away, tend not to remain in the public eye as devil-images; instead, they become unpersons, their names never mentioned, their pictures never shown. This has been the fate of Anatoly Scharansky. Indeed, so thorough has his unper- soning been that Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon apparently feared the Soviet Mission to the United Nations was in danger of forgetting him altogether. Fortunately, the classy residence of the delegates from the classless society is within the boundaries of Mr. Simon’s borough, so he was able to do something to forestall this amnesia: he renamed the portion of West 255th Street on which the Mission’s compound is located One Scharansky Square and, with Soviet Jewish émigrés and others interested in the cause of freedom looking on, climbed up and personally installed the new street sign. Oleg Troyanov- sky, head of the Soviet delegation, was not amused. But he may have been edified.

■ Unemployment is awesomely high. How to cut the figure in half? 1) Four per cent of the population now seeking jobs could cease to seek them, which would have the effect of reducing the working percentage of the population to the level of I960. 2) Employees in underutilized industries (e.g., automobiles, steel) could accept wage and salary reductions of 20 per cent. 3) Corporate earnings not distributed as dividends but reinvested in modernization could be made tax- exempt. 4) The minimum-wage law could be repealed. 5) The first 12 months of work by any previously unemployed person could be made immune from Social Security tax. Or, alternatively, 6) reflate the economy, and tax everyone the 10 to 30 per cent resulting yearly inflation.