CORRESPONDENCE UNEMPLOYMENT SOLUTION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18064, 15 April 1933, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE

UNEMPLOYMENT SOLUTION

(To the Editor of tho Herald.)

Sir, —When Lewis Carroll wrote : “The time has come,, the Walrus said To talk of many things, Of shoes and ships and sealing wax And cabbages and kings, And why the sea is boiling hot, And whether pigs have wings,” Siirely the fantasy produced by his remarkable brain must, have been inspired by a close study of that wonderful product of modem democracy, the politiciah; local anil otherwise.

However, out of the welter, of gas and hot air commencing to suffocate the voters of Gisborne, one fact of national iniportafioe has emerged, viz., Mr. Jackson’s solution of the unemployment problem, wHich I understand to be as follows: Pledge the unemployment tax of £4.0*30,000 a year to raise a loan of this Sum ,to be raised from the bartks (oh in. reality, the investors large and small who have trusted the banks fio take care of their savings), at a rate ot interest not at .present divulged. Spend about £10,000,000 or so (what’s a million or so between friends) of this loan in the first year in starting going payable State ehterjiHses, such as railways, roads, etc., and cut tho halanco out the following year. iMgii presto ! ( The problem’s solved. While appreciating the feasibility of the scheme, I think Mr. Jackson should elaborate it a bit further by explaining the following: The £4,000,000 tax having, been pledged to repay tho £120,000,000, which would carry at say 5 per c.ent. £1,000,000 a year interest, it would take five or six years to repay the principal. If tho loan moneys are spent in two years, the unemployed would have no pay or work for three or four years. I assume that Mr. Jackson would then suggest taxing the public another Is in the £, raise another £20,000,000, arid repeat tho dose. By a process of attrition, it would appear possible to proceed by progressive -taxing and borrowing to tax the taxpayer 20s in the £, by which time £400,000,000 would have been borrowed iand expended in relief.—Yours, etc., SANCHO PANZA.