13904. U.S. COMPETITIVENESS IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE: THE SOLUTIONS TO OUR PROBLEMS ARE HOME-GROWN. This tightly constructed essay refutes the oft-repeated argument that the decline in U.S. productivity and global competitiveness in the late 1980's could have been rapidly reversed by simply adopting the "Japanese system." Argues that the kind of production methods and processes used so successfully in Japan are not in conflict with American values and/or U.S. manufacturing methods; indeed, it is noted that many of these "Japanese" methods are in fact American in origin. 6 pages, 9 footnotes, 3 bibliographic sources.