UNEMPLOYMENT—A PROPOSITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 10, 12 January 1934, Page 6

UNEMPLOYMENT—A PROPOSITION.

> Ifc is becoming daily more evident that the , whole system of unemployment relief, as now r regulated, as a drag on the whole community. l It impoverishes the worker, creates or fosters - unemployment, and is a severe handicap to ' industry,, owingo.to the heavy taxation necesL sary to finance the scheme, most of the money > thus raised being spent in an unremunerative i manner. It is an open question whether the , worker would; not have been better off if i there had been leas- interference by legislation , between employer and worker. The money , collected by the Government as taxation might ; have been used by employers in providing > more work in really productive industry, thus • increasing the wealth of the country instead t of diminishing it. While wages would possibly t be lower than five years ago, they would be : higher than the rate prevailing to-day, to .say t nothing ofi the unemployment created by [ legislation, which ignored the fact that the : natural laws of supply and demand must pre- , vail in the end. Surely the time is ripe for a round-table conference of representatives of the Government, the workers and the employers to formulate a scheme which would ■ relieve industry and enable it to absorb more i workers, a* an alternative to the present plan of taxing industry and thus preventing it from employing more workers or paying higher wages, if a policy of drift is allowed to continue, we may, expect matters to go from bad to worse, to the detriment of the whole community. VEE.B. SAP.