STANDARD OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 91, 17 April 1923, Page 6

STANDARD OF LIVING

The decision of the Arbitration Court not to make a general order for variation of wages is supported i by arguments which will appeal to' both employers and workers as sound. The Court in the first ; place has desired to maintain the standard of living, aud has therefore refrained from making a reduction in wages which might not be compensated by reduction in prices. If is upon this principle i that the Court has always worked, | though some of the workers' unions, failing to discern the difference between money and what money would purchase, have not given it credit for its efforts. Some of the unions have kept their gaze fixed so constantly on the money wage that they have been hypnotised by it, and have not realised that an' attempt to maintain this money wage at an artificial level may be the most certain method of reducing the real wage and therefore the standard of living. If high money wages spell unemployment they lead inevitably to a lower living standard. A nominal wage of j £5 or £6 a week is of no value to the man who cannot obtain employment at that rate. The Court has now withheld a general reduction of wages because of the possi- ! bility of its entailing a reduction also in purchasing powef. It has been enabled to do thi» because of the evidence in its possession of a general improve/Qent in trade and industry. This gives further cause for satisfaction. It is impossible to say what the future will hold, and whether the improvement which is no*, evident will be maintained. So much depends on the movements of markets which are beyond our control; but we may still do much to assure prosperity bjr increasing efficiency. Greater efficiency is a certain method of assisting the maintenance of the standard of living, and it can be introduced without the disconcerting effects that usually accompany alterations in money wages.