ABSTRACT
Heilbroner's introduction of the Hobbesian problem in income distribution—that there is a free-for-all for limited higher income positions. Heilbroner makes clear that this problem is as profoundly disconcerting to the Eastern socialist as it is for the Western capitalist. Thus, the convergence of industrial systems leads to an emergence of shared ideological dilemmas. In some measure, Heilbroner's thinking is little else than the established notion that industrial societies, whatever the political system, raise similar problems that ultimately triumph over systemic differences. Heilbroner's convergence hypothesis is the absence of social harmony in both the United States and the Soviet Union. Heilbroner seems to say that the evils are real enough but that the solutions remain as ubiquitous and elusive as ever. Heilbroner writes as if he is more worried over the solution to starvation than the facts of starvation. Heilbroner has thrown this parallel of underpopulation and underdevelopment largely to the wind, with disastrous effects.
