Living Costs

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1947, Page 4

Living Costs

gO far as people generally are concerned the prime economic need of the day is a stable price level. Living costs have risen sharply, and are still rising. Although the war has partly accounted for the steeper rate of increase in recent years, factors in Government policy had caused a rising tendency long before the outbreak of war. In fact, Government policy must take the greatest share of the responsibility.

The people are today urged to put their surplus money into national savings, but, if the present trend continues they, in common with all people who contribute to insurance and similar saving schemes-, will find that when they come to make use of that money its value will have been greatly reduced. They will find themselves in a similar position to the many elderly people who ’ throughout their working •lives consistently put aside a. proportion of their incomes so that in their declining years they would have a modest annuity and would not have to rely on State and private charity. These people the great majority of them were hard working and thrifty, the type that helped to build this country on sound foundations —are now hard put to it to make ends meet. As the cost of living has gone up and as taxes have risen, the, value of their fixed incomes has proportionately declined. They, in common with many other people, have come to realise that Speialism, far from redeeming its promises of more wealth for all with less work, is proving a costly venture. The indications are that it will prove more costly still.