PURCHASING POWER.

Southland Times, Issue 25308, 11 June 1935, Page 3

PURCHASING POWER.

To the Editor. Sir,—l read with interest your leader in the issue of Saturday last, where you say that after investigation by modern economists, Major Douglass declaiation “that there is never enough money available to purchase the goods that have been produced, falls to the ground.” It would be very interesting to know if these same economists could tell us, since it appears, according to their arguments, that there is sufficient purchasing power, why we have on one hand an abundance of goods and services, and on the other, an incredible numbei’ of people going short of the necessities of life. I could quote reliable figures showing “that so much food is being actually destroyed because, although there are plenty of people who could use those foodstuffs, they have not sufficient money to exchange for them. I think you will agree that the argument that present incomes are only unequally distributed is useless. So do not present day conditions show, positively, that Major Douglas’s declaration is a fact? —I am, etc “DIZZY.”

[The declaration that there _is an abundance of goods and also privation is not contradicted. Major Douglas’s theory as to the cause and the cure is contradicted. —Ed. S.T.]