GOING UP

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1937, Page 10

GOING UP

' Higher freezing works charges are announced as a result of the alterations in wages which were made at the direction, of the Minister1 of Labour. The increases are onefortieth of a penny a pound on lamb, mutton, veal, and pork, and onetwentieth' of a penny a pound on quarter beef. The mutton increase represents about l^d on a freight carcass. In, themselves these increases may appear trifling, but so are most costs. The trouble is that they all add up and eventually someone has to pay, more or someone has to lose. For a time the movement in costs may be hidden by making the least popular member of the community the burden-bearer, by taking the cost out of the mortgagee or other investor on the pretext that he is rich, or is an exploiter, or with some other excuse. The excuse, as in the fable of the wolf that was determined to kill the lamb, does not matter much. The aim is somehow to conceal the cost. Eventually, however, the hiding process can go no further, and the higher charges are felt. Producing costs rise, sales tax that was to be abolished is kept on, income tax is increased, land tax is raised inequitably, rates are higher. When the costs reach the consumer, he clamours for another increase to meet them, or for more spending to counteract them. And so the process

goes on,