MORE PENSIONERS, FEWER CHILDREN

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22231, 23 October 1937, Page 9

MORE PENSIONERS, FEWER CHILDREN

TO THE BDITOB OF THE PBBBS. Sir,—ln a leading article you draw attention to the change that is taking place in the relative strength of the age groups represented by the heading. Such a result is to be expected The great advance made in medicaJ science has raised the average expectation of life to 58 years for the child. born to-day, whereas it was only 46 when the writer was born. As the period for which the average life has been prolonged is beyond the age at which reoroduction normally takes place, it is not to be wondered at that the pronortion of the population in the younger groups tends to fall. The decline in the actual number* of the children can be attributed directly to the effects of the deoressmn It is unkind of vou to deprive the Government of 20 years hence of th« satisfaction of having solved the unemployment problem. However, I am incli-.ed to believe that the forecast of a shortage of labour will not come about unless something unusual happens, such as an orgy of destruction similar to that taking place in Christian Roain and heathen China today In the normal course of events, the improvements in mechanical aids and the building of capital works are continually releasing labour at the same time that production is increasing. The burden of caring for the aged is not a financial oroblem really. but a physical one. For instance, if the production of foodstuffs were to cease suddenly, all the money in all the insurance funds would be useless: whereas if we could imagine the destruction of all the money insurance records, leaving the fields and factories intact, the people could not starve. The only sensible argument that can be used to suDport an increase in population is that more consumers are needed to use what industry can produce so easily. You are on sound ground when you warn the State that more attention must be paid to the very young, and that the nroces? of increasing the financial burdens of families must be halted. National superannuation will increase those burdens and reduce the size of the families. The national dividend, an integral part of a social credit programme, will reduce the financial burden of rearing families, and. thereby, i encourage the people to multiply. The ] national dividend is a pension from birth, universal and non-contributory--Yours, etc., w . B . BRAY . , October 20, 1937. !