"SOCIAL CREDIT DISCREDITED"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24772, 24 November 1941, Page 7

"SOCIAL CREDIT DISCREDITED"

TO THE EDITOB Sir,—ln your issue of to-day H. Gow objects to my statement that the ownership of factories does not matter, provided we, the people, can enjoy the products. She goes on to say that the present unsatisfactory dtetribution of product is the inevitable consequence of the private ownership of factories, and then adds; " For private ownership means private employment and payment of labour as well as private profit." Quite so. The wages, salaries and dividends distributed by private enterprise are not sufficient to buy up the goods produced and the mere transfer of factories from individuals or companies to the State would not solve the problem of distribution as it would not increase the purchasing power of the consumers. To the consumer, who requires goods and services and has not enough money to satisfy his needs or desires, it does not matter, in the least, whether the State or a private concern owns them; conversely, if you have enough money to buy all the goods and services you require, what matters who produces them or who owns the means of production? The comfort of a pair of shoes is not enhanced by the fact that they were made in a State-owned factory nor is the taste and nutritive value of an egg diminished because the hen was the property of a private individual. As for Miss Gow's contention that at present the product is distributed according to private interests rather than in the interest of the whole community again I agree. If it be assumed, then, that State ownership is not for profit (only an assumption, mind! l the money distributed in the course of production in the form of wages and salaries is still insufficient to buy and use all the goods and services thus produced. Your correspondent will I think, agree with me that the end or purpose of production is consumption; but under the present, financial system the money in the hands of the people is not sufficient to buy all the goods and services which they produce. While the right to the. necessaries of life depends upon work and wages there will always be more goods and services than the people can buy with the money at their disposal. A national dividend, based upon the real wealth and resources or the country paid to every individual, first to augment and eventually partly, if not completely, to feplace wages and salaries, wiil solve thf> problem of distribution. The problem of production has already been solved in all industrialised or partly industrialised countries of >.he world, thanks to the harnessing of solar energy and the perfecting of scientific processes of production.—l am. etc., ' A. A. Lind. St. Kilda, November 19