MONETARY REFORM

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 14050, 3 May 1946, Page 2

MONETARY REFORM

Sir, —There are a number of persons who at one time were keen supporters of social credit and monetary reform, but who of recent years have become lukewarm or who have lost interest owing to the fact that for some time there has been plenty, even a superfluity, of money in cir"fculation. They appear to deduct from this fact that as the scarcity of money of the slump years has been overcome there is now no need for concern over monetary matters and that social credit can safely be left in’ the realms of theory. Unbiased examination of the present situation, hpwever, gives no grounds for any such complacency. What, for instance, is the origin of this plentitude of money? Is it not the sinister one of war and preparations for it and the aftermath of accumulated soldiers’ pay and gratuities? What will happen when all this has spent itself? There has been anything but a conscious attempt at relating the supply of money to the quantity of consumer goods that are available, which is the only sure guarantee that sufficient money for our purposes will always be in our possession. The principle that has been operating is a financiers’ one: ‘‘You can have war and prosperity, or peace and poverty, you cannot have peace and prosperity.” We have not yet called its bluff and said: vVe will have social credit, peace and prospertiy,” although in our hearts this is what we all desire. The increase. of money in circulation moreover has not proved a remedy for other troubles in our economic system, among which are excessive taxation, high living and production costs and scarcity of consumer goods. Taxation cannot be described as anything else but excessive when sales tax on certain materials makes the cost of housing prohibitive or when income tax above a certain level discourages production that would otherwise take.place'. There has been no arrestation in the vicious spiral of an ascending cost of living and even higher wages. In a number of cases there has been a blockage of supply of goods incompatible with the return of peace-time conditions. Removal of the disturbing effects of war may have some ameliorative effect, but it is more than likely that these troubles will continue indefinitely in peace time unless the scoial credit technique is applied. At present the tendency is towards the operation of the international financiers’ maxims: ‘‘Always give the public a meatless bone,” and ‘‘A people without homes is more easily governed.” Returned servicemen and others in their twenties and thirties now entering with high hopes for the future their various places in the economic system should take warning that the majority risk grave disappointment in later life unless the monetary system is amended to allow of progressive reduction of working hours as made possible by science, machines and power, the • setting free of the individual to pursue .self-development and the cultural arts and the monetising of the community’s social credit to bring the cost of the necessities afid amenities of life within reach of all. The matter of the correct resolving of the chaotic conditions in our financial and economic system is of the very greatest importance and should not be regarded with indifference or amused tolerance in leading quarters, whether they be professional, lay or ecclesiastical. —I am, etc.,

' “FIAT LUX.”