NEW BASIS FOR MONEY VALUES

Southland Times, Issue 25746, 9 August 1945, Page 3

NEW BASIS FOR MONEY VALUES

Dunedin Man’s Suggestions

The creation of a national economy based on an entirely new system of values was outlined by Mr A. W. Milburn, of Dunedin, in an address at the weekly meeting of the Invercargill Rotary Club last evening. Mr Milburn’s address was in the form of an allegory, in which he contrasted the faults of life at present in a country which he called “New Land” with the health and happiness attainable in the “Sane Land” which he imagined. <■ The monetary system of “Sane Land,” in common with almost every other aspect of the national life, had been altered to give the maximum benefit to every member of the community. Income tax was the device of the devil himself, said Mr Milburn. It retarded progress, killed initiative, created unemployment and debased the value of the money or goods the people had rightfully earned. In “Sane Land” there would be no income tax.

Explaining the system which would be used, the speaker said that the average span of human life was the only positive known quantity concerned with human life; therefore, that was the basis. At present the basis of the money system was supply and demand, but in “Sane Land” die one tangible value would be human life. The average span of life was 67 years. There were approximately 1,500,000 people in the country and for national economy purposes each life was valued at £lOOO. The money contribution from each individual from the age of 20 until death was £lO a year, and this contribution, assessed to earn 3 per cent, during each life, would provide rather more than £lOOO on the decease of each life. Thus “Sane Land” had a definite money basis and could spend on behalf of its citizens a total £1,500,000,000 without creating any burdens of debt for the generations to come. Every birth created its own national credit, and every death retired it.