CORRESPONDENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 204, 30 August 1933, Page 10

CORRESPONDENCE.

POINTS FROM LETTERS. DOUGLAS CREDIT INTEREST. If I rightly understand Mr. Sexton's i letter in your issue of Saturday, August j 20, the introduction of the Douglas Credit system would sweep away the means of living of the large number of old people who are dependent on in- | terest irom the invested savings of a life-time. I have read a good deal about the Douglas system, but this is the first time 1 have seen it plainly stated that its introduction would mean the impoverishment of oid people who have done their life's work and have secured by self-denial a modest degree of comfort in their old age. The advocates of the Douglas system do not appear to agree on this point. I find the phrase, "Not less for some, but more for all," frequently used in Douglas Credit publications. How does Mr. Sexton's statement square with the answer, given in a pa pel' devoted to the advocacy of the Douglas system, to a question as to what would happen to a man's life's savings, say £3000 on fixed deposit in the bank, when the Douglas system was put into operation? The important part of the editor's reply was: "The man's £3000 on iixed deposit would not be affected in any way whatsoever, and the banks would pay interest as they do now." Another writer on the subject says: "Instead, therefore, of such a drastic course as the stoppage of all payment of interest, which would undoubtedly involve the wholesale collapse of our present industrial fabric and cause vastly more misery and suffering even than are now brought about by the inequalities of that system . . . we must calculate just how many extra tickets are required to meet these interest charges and issue these tickets' free to the consumer." Still another writer says: "The switch over would be as smooth as the change from darkness to dawn. . . . All present rights would be protected." Similar statements from different writers to the same effect could bo added did space permit. It is essential that on this important point it should be made clear that the introduction of he Douguas system does not mean gross injustice to a large body of people who have done their life's work. Especially should this he clone by those advocating the new system on Christian grounds. I write not ae an opponent of the Douglas system, but merely as one seeking * MORE LIGHT.