Systems

Abstract

At frequent intervals American newspapers and magazines tell us that the transportation system of the United States nears the brink of abysmal disaster. In London, the morbid degeneration of the British parliamentary system into total futility is at all times confidently anticipated. At Monte Carlo, Las Vegas and Royale-les-Eaux gamblers, ingenious college professors and bored secret agents contrive gambling systems which, with only one recent exception, achieve little success. One hears that both the Soviet Union and the United States contemplate the construction of elaborate, enormously expensive anti-ballistic-missile defence systems, presumably to protect themselves not against each other but against the possibility of recklessness by a third party. The system of public accounts used in Britain has not yet been reformed in spite of the fact that it was already obsolete when designed in 1689, and that a commission of inquiry recommended that it be drastically changed as long ago as 1829. It does not even use the system of book keeping by double entry. People discuss excitedly the merits and demerits of different economic systems (such as communism and capitalism) and commonly confuse them with different political systems (such as democracy and totalitarianism). Bridge players bid according to the Goren system, the ACOL system, the Italian system. The business journals are full of articles about personnel information systems, corporate planning systems, inventory control systems and even total management information systems.