SOCIAL CREDIT AND THE OLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24775, 27 November 1941, Page 9

SOCIAL CREDIT AND THE OLD

TO THE EDITOB Sir,—l feel I must apologise lor asking you for further space in which to deal with a correspondent who evidently wants argument for argument's sake' and is prepared to make any number of unsupported and ridiculous statements in order to keep argument going, but I shall not for the present controversy tax your favour further than this letter. Let us get the matter clear. The so-called social credit proposition sets out, first, that, under the existing system of costing charges, there is a constant tendency to shortage of purchacing power in the hands of individuals—a shortage which is at present made up for only by methods that leave the community further and further in debt to the banking system: that this shortage is cumulative, and that it accounts for the alternate boom and slump cycle which has been a marked feature of our economy during the last century arid more; secondly, that to remedy this shortage, cost-free money must be introduced into the cycle of trade at the consumer’s end, or. in other words we must increase incomes without increasing costs; thirdly, that to do this we must assert the community's sovereign right as owner of the. new money at present created solely by the banking system as its own property and issued as an interest-bearing debt; fourthly, that to deal with technical unemployment, a social, or national dividend not based on taxation must supplement the wage system. Anyone with a head to think, not merely a few prejudices to play round with, can see that this proposition is not going to interfere with saving for old age or deprive the old of the fruits of saving: while on the other hand we are told that under our present system not 5 per cent, of the people can look forward to any security or comfort in old age, and the burden of debt and taxation is rapidly making life unliveable, not only for the old, but for all.,

The aim of social credit proposals is to unleash plenty. There are plenty of detailed proposals available in social credit literature, if “ Sexagenarian ” really wanted to study them, which I doubt. There is nothing in them to suggest “an amount of regimentation scarcely distinguishable from Socialism "—begging Socialism’s pardon for identifying it with totalitarianism, although professed Socialist “ planners " are undoubtedly responsible for much of the regimentation and State interference we do suffer from. On the other hand, the social credit proposals are the one and only thing that will not only safeguard the old, but will also preserve that freedom and democratic way of life we are,supposed to be fighting for and save the world from self-destruction in a crescendo of “bigger, brighter, and better” wars I am. etc., Truth. Dunedin. November 25.