Social Credit policy

Press, 20 November 1981, Page 12

Social Credit policy

Sir,—Your editorial “Trading in Fairyland” is the most blatant form of emotive bias I have ever seen in “The Press." I always believed until now that editors were objective, and should not'state personal opinions as proven facts. You say that none of the policies of importance to the Social Credit theories have been shown to work. This is not true. The best example of Social Credit policy was implemented in the mid30s to set up the dairy industry. I have, never heard complaints of bureaucracy and centralism here, nor has the dairy industry been involved in disputes common to other industries. An “indepth” analysis by you of the present Government’s financial system should now follow so that we can make fair comparison.—Yours, etc., A. JAMIESON. Waimangaroa, November 17, 1981. Sir,—When about 1935, the leader of the Labour Party planned a revolutionary new idea, Social Ssecurity, what was it the conservatives labelled it? Was it “social insanity"? I cannot see that control of credit by the Government instead of private financiers is so fantastic. Just as Social Security was made to work (and adopted by the rest of the Western world), I think Social Credit could be made to do so too.—Yours, etc., S. L. DONALDSON. November 18, 1981. Sir,—A strange understanding seems to be behind your statement, “private financial institutions do not ‘print’ money (credit) and their lending is based on their own borrowing or accumulated assets which are not without cost." Everyone who writes a cheque on a bank account which is in overdraft “prints” money (or credit which may not be the same thing). When someone else deposits the cheque in an account which is not in overdraft or puts the “money” or “credit” on fixed deposit, the money or credit is created in a visible form as figures. Bank assets may trigger off the overdraft system and there may even be printed money in existence but most bank deposits are simply the credit balance of their own overdrafts. This is how banks create money or credit which can be considered as something similar to, but not identical to, printed money—Yours, etc.. JIM TIMINGS. November 18, 1981.