POLITICS AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21215, 22 December 1930, Page 12

POLITICS AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

TO THE EDITOR ■ SIR ;~ A letter under the above heading signed by Mr C. M. Moss, to cafi Mr mT commen , t -. 1 ““St congratulate Mr Moss upon his usual clarity of expression and statesman-like views. In the nrst place, be points out that the cause of npfmrl° yi ? ent 16 dishonesty or incomi y of - ou / pu V llc men, and that the m s m taxation on the right lines, so that a more equal distribution of the national , meome may be made. Having r ta H*?n the above remarkable views, he rnm™ + , aV01 , (ls 1 mentioning where these competent and honest public men are to are £ onf d n'f 6 Can - only infer that they a ® £ ut of , offi oe; as in no country in the under the present system, except, perhaps, France, do I see conditions any better than in our own. Lowes Dicken- +£ n l .-fustice and Liberty,” points out tnat British political power is changing from an oligarchy of birth to an oligarchy of wealth. It is not really numbers that rule, but that which controls numbers, and what is that? At every point wealth. The above, up to the present, vr ay -i\/r S 0 • a PP} y t° the colonies, so that Mr Moss is going to lead a crusade against .present controlling power in public affairs. I wonder what party he will .Aone of the present parties would ® Ul * his views, as I understand that the Labour Party, whose policy may be on similar lines, turned him down owing to his confusion of ideas in regard to its policy. Surely his statements in bis last lettter should damn him in the eyes of all Liberals and Reformers. Fancy inferring that his own party leaders were either incompetent or dishonest, and seriously stating that under present conditions you could solve unemployment by any sort of taxation. lam very much afraid that Mr Moss will not get into public life along these lines. No Liberal or Reform party would consider this proposal, but perhaps, if Mr Moss got elected, he would not worry about such trifles. X would point out that the workers are exploited on their job by the appropriation by their employers of the surplua values they,create, and that the present system is founded on this basis. To attempt to collect the bulk of this surplus value and. redistribute it more evenly would mean changing the system, and that is why Russia is the only country where this has been attempted. ' Mr Moss wastes a lot of time in attempting to divide society into three sections. On the lines.he has adopted there can he no clear dividing lines between the sections. It is much simpler to adopt the following division:—(l) Those who can earn more than half their income by their own services in consideration of their own past services (pensions); (2) those who get the bulk of their income from investments or through employing others. If Mr Moss had adopted these divisions he would be forced to see that, taking a world-wide view, there is little chance of the interests of both classes being the same over a period. If an employer’s profits go down he wants to pay lees wages or get more work for the same or less money. Mr Moss, having propounded one cure (taxation) for the unemployment trouble, now goes, on to suggest another remedy. I would like to ask him, Is it because it would be difficult to find able and honest public men to put his policy into operation, or because he is a bit doubtful of .the results of such a policy? His next suggestion is perhaps more remarkable than his first, when we consider the two proposals side by side. The second pro» posajr—reducing wages to their exchange Value —means a reduction in the present standard of living of the worker. Mr Moss, with, his usual logic, will attempt to deny this, but I do not think he will be convincing. Then, on the one hand, Y- e .jl av ® , a Proposal for more equally dividing the national income, and on the other a proposal for further exploiting the working class and making the present distribution of income more unequal. I consider th&t this is a remarkable production even from Mr Moss. The term •exchange value” which Mr Moss uses so, glibly would be a very difficult matter to. decide. It could be solved only by using the cost of living figures as is done at present. Not having heard that there has been a great all-round fall in the cost pt living, or any great increase in the purchasing power of wages, I really wonder why Mr Moss put up such a so-called solution,—l am, etc., A. V.