THERE ARE NO EASY SOLUTIONS TO ECONOMIC WOES

It's a pity that the pollsters have convinced politicians of every stripe that it is necessary to pander to the people. Since they have, however, we won't be hearing any home truths about the nation's economy from Democrats or Republicans in the foreseeable future.

What is more, sadly enough, if someone actually summoned the nerve to cut through the fog and speak candidly, we would probably lynch him. We have grown comfortable with the patronizing claptrap and free-lunch panaceas dished up by conservatives as well as liberals.

But let's rise above reality and let our imaginations soar. Somewhere, somehow there must be someone willing to give the following talk:

"Ladies and gentlemen,

"It is clear that you, like most Americans, are concerned about the state of the economy-both your own and the nation's. You have good reasons for your concern, but, unfortunately, there are no easy answers and no deserving scapegoats.

"If we are to survive this rough passage in America's history with our democratic institutions intact and our society liberated from its increasingly class-ridden divisions, we will need truth-telling above all else.

"It is not that the truth will, in and of itself, settle our most pressing problems. It is simply that without truth, we will waste time and resources on placebos that debilitate the body politic and poison the public dialogue. So let the truth-telling begin.

"First, most American families have been on a downhill slope for at least 15 years. Adjusted for inflation median family income is below the level reached in 1978. Median individual income has been going down even longer-for over 20 years.

"This is not universally true. One percent of us are doing phenomenally well. During one illustrative recent period, 1977-88, according to the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 'the richest 2.5 million Americans (had) nearly as much income as the 100 million Americans with the lowest incomes.' The gap has been growing steadily ever since.

"Why? Is it because of Reaganite heartlessness, or Democratic coddling or high taxes, or inefficient industrialists, or undereducated workers?

"I doubt it, though I don't actually have 'the answer.' Indeed, if anyone claims he does, laugh him out of the room. That's for television talkers and sideshow barkers.

"But I do know that any solution worthy of the name will be more Churchillian than comforting. Blood, sweat and tears are certain. It's going to get worse before it gets better. Neither God nor history guaranteed that the United States would be the perpetual winner of the economic Super Bowl. These days challengers are spilling out of the grandstands.

"So the explanation could just be that simple: The United States exists in a vastly changed global market, in which jobs and money don't respect borders. Not many years ago, the 50 states competed with each other for plants and employment and production. Now the United States must compete with scores of nations in the same kind of contest. Productivity has been the winner. Average working Americans, blue collar and white, have not.

"Perhaps it is because we now live in normal times, rather than the first flush 25 years after World War 11. Perhaps because information-age technology is available to all cultures and adaptable in almost all, there is virtually nowhere that modern capitalism cannot thrive. Perhaps open borders are at fault, or free trade, or women in the job market. Maybe we are suffering from a moral dry rot that saps self-discipline.

"But to offer these widely advanced explanations is not to prove their wisdom. No one actually knows what is behind the slide in your incomes.

"As for some of the more popular suggestions for turning things around, lower taxes may make you feel better temporarily but supply-side economics has already been at bat. It struck out. Your wages and the $4 trillion national debt prove it.

"More and better education, as promoted by Labor Secretary Robert Reich, sounds downright American, but the net result will be the addition of tens of thousands of well-qualified people holding second-rate jobs. There are already more than enough workers for most of the skilled jobs available. That's one of the reasons why labor costs have stayed so low for so long.

"No, my fellow Americans, there is no Moses on the horizon. I'm afraid we are going to have to tough it out for a while.

"As we do, we can demand that the pain be more equitably shared and that the 20 percent do not live high while the other 80 percent languish. Shared sacrifice is not beyond the reach of public policy.

"But pat solutions ARE beyond us, at least today. That's not what you want to hear, but that's the way it is. If we are lucky, we will avoid doing serious damage to the republic as we voyage through the rip tide. If we are unlucky, we'll buy into this 'contract' or that 'new' credo, find once more that it doesn't work, and give up altogether. Our children deserve better."

Hodding Carter III, former State Department spokesman and award winning journalist, is a columnist for Newspaper Enterprise Association.