FALSE STANDARDS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 238, 26 September 1930, Page 4

FALSE STANDARDS

LUXURY REPLACES COMFORT NEGLECT OF THRIFT. BISHOP’S SOLUTION FOR PRESENT DEPRESSION, The cause* of and cure for the present depression and consequent unemployment were discussed in an interesting way by the Bishop of Waiapu at the opening of the Diocesan Synod yesterday. In the course of his address the Bishop observed;— “The financial condition of the country and the problem of unemployment, which is very closely connected with it. are a matter of concern for the Church quite apart from the difficulties which they create for Church finance. The problems are not peculiar to New Zealand, but are almost world wide, and have been occupying the minds of economists for years past, without the discovery of any satisfactory solution. It is only part of the truth to say that production has outrun consmption. and that therefore the market has slumped. “Low prices are not in themselves an evil. There are more consumers than producers, and with low prices they can buy more commodities. Nor will the fact that there have been large withdrawals of gold from the country explain the whole trouble. America has been absorbing vast amounts of gold, but has not escaped the curse of unemployment. A simple explanation appears to be that people are not buying because they have not the money. But wages are more than double what they were fifty years ago, and the average income is far higher than it was. The money is there, but as a rule it is being wrongly spent.

REACTING FACTORS. “The roov of the evil lies in the prevalent neglect of thrift, a mistaken view of the standard of living and a gross abuse of the system of credit. These factors act and react upon one another and cannot be wholly dissociated. We may, however, consider a few points in regard to each of them. Credit when properly safeguarded is of great service in the development of business; but when used to push sales by the instalment system it becomes a serious evil, a canker eating into the vitals of sound finance. A plausible salesman persuades his victims to buy motor-cars, gramophones, radio sets, furs, sewing machines and unnecessary’ furniture on the hire system, and the purchaser is saddled with instalments which are frequently still falling due after the article has perished bj use. “The standard of living is a phrase which was invented by political economists in the middle of last century, and has done good service in drawing attention to the fact that in the ten state of affairs there were many workers who could not obtain the ordinary necessaries and decencies of life. And labour leaders have rightly been zealous for the maintenance of the standard at a satisfactory level. But an undue attention to this point has led to the creation of a false standard. PLEASURE PARAMOUNT. “Rightly or wrongly, everyone has been led, if not urged, to be dissatisfied with the level he has reached; and too often this dissatisfaction leads many to adopt a standard on a level above that to which they have attained. The standard of living is measured by the standard of comfort, and this sooner or later becomes the standard of luuxury and pleasure; with the result that nearly everyone is treating himself to the pleasures and luxuries enjoyed by his neighbour who has a higher income than himself. The trouble is that practically all of these have to be paid for in cash, whether by instalments or not, and there is not then money available for those necessaries of life with which alone the standard of living is concerned. Every one is hard up, and everyone is spending far more than is legitimate upon things which are quite unnecessary. “A scrutiny of the Government returns discloses the fact that we are are spending millions a year upon motors and their upkeep, millions upon the pictures and other forms of amusement, millions upon tobacco. The figures given are generally those for wholesale prices, what the people pay is largely in excess of this. Then we spend enormous sums upon gramophones. radio beer and spirits, sweets and gambling. Hardly anyone can claim that he is not to blame under one or more of these headings. Extravagance is rampant in the public and private expenditure of the country. Thrift is almost unknown. NO KILL-JOY CAMPAIGN. “The wage earner is dissatisfied and continually clamours for more wages; while the employer is resentful of this, knowing that so large a proportion is simply squandered, and he has real difficulty in meeting the demand owing to his proportion of foolish expenditure. There is no need to embark upon a kill-joy campaign. The French have no reputation for lack of gaiety, and France felt more severely than any other country the devastation of the war. But the French are well known for their thrift, and applied themselves energetically to the task of restoring their country, with the result that, by the latest reports, unemployment is almost unknown in France. It is quite open to us to do the same; and if we do not discipline ourselves we may have discipline thrust upon us by our creditors at home and abroad. “It is rite possible for us to live more simply, to forego many of our luxuries and, for our pleasures, to be prepared to amuse ourselves instead of paying extravagantly for someone else to amuse us. This, of course, means self-denial, and it is here that the Church comes in. One of the first duties of the Christian is to deny himself, and the Church has always urged upon her members that wise restraint of all the appetites and desires, which constitutes the real virtue of temperance. The subject is not one which calls for action by the Synod, but it is one which all Church people ought to lay to heart.”