THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN

Evening Star, Issue 20863, 5 August 1931, Page 12

THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —In reply to “ Button oil’” I can only say, not professing to bo a political economist but just a navvy, viho believes more in what ho has seen •' i various countries than in cooked statistics and faked cost of living figures, that wo are now and will in the future bo unable to compete with Soviet I’ticsia, just precisely for the reason ho -nates, high priced land, etc. As long as mmi is a subject for gambling and speculation just so long will it command an uneconomic value, and, as Mr Forbes says, you can’t get a quart out of a pint pot. There are also Argentina and Uruguay to compote with, and they have an unlimited supply of cheap lab our to draw from in Spain and Portugal. On top of this the same policy of false economy is promulgated at Homo—“overhead costs must come down” (always wages), so the worker has not the money to buy back enough of his own product or New Zealand produce cither, thus suffering from the curse of plenty although in direct need for the necessities of life for self and family. Tariffs will never solve the question, as they give an opportunity to hold up to ransom prices what is already unattainable. As far as I can see the only cure is manufacture for use, not for speculation primarily. Has lowering wages caused the cost of living to fall boro? Postage, tea, sugar, tobacco have all gone up, rent no decrease, rates just the same as ever. “ Buttonoff ” will see in the ‘ Star ’ tonight what chance bools made in Now Zealand have against those from the Bata factory in Czccho-Slovakia. Yet tariffs have not saved the United States, the highest protected country »n the world.—l am, etc., Povokfski. August 3.