The Economy

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28540, 20 March 1958, Page 3

The Economy

Sir, —What has happened to poor old Uncle Chris, that champion of private enterprise, now that his great model of successful capitalism has millions upon millions of unemployed, and has to borrow the technique of socialism by going in for public enterprise on a huge scale to save its tottering economy? Has poor old Chris, like the out-of-work citizens of the United States, been found

“redundant”? It is obvious that without the enormous government expenditure on its defence programme the private enterprise economy of America would have crashed long ago. In a journal I received recently frojn the United States the advocates of private enterprise are now frantically calling upon President Eisenhower and Congress to come to their aid before there is widespread in-, dustrial unrest.—Yours, etc., CHRISTOPHER.

March 19, 1958. [The correspondent is evidently one of those who would rather have depression . and unemployment than prosperity under capitalism. His satisfaction with the present widespread economic difficulties must, however, be tempered by the knowledge that in no Western country does private enterprise function without a large measure of control by—or interference from—public authority. Indeed, the distortion of the economy by State price-support and similar measures—notably in the United States—is one of the main causes of the present world glut of primary produce, which is the principal threat to the continuance of New Zealand’s high standard of living.—Ed., “The Press.”]