“THIS MONEY GAME”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4558, 10 April 1942, Page 5

“THIS MONEY GAME”

WAR FOOTING URGED COUPONS INSTEAD OF CASH PUT THE PEOPLE ON THE SOLDIERS’ BASIS “ After the fall of Singapore New Zealanders showed signs of awakening out of the sleep induced by our long security to some sense of our extreme peril. Surely the hope of American help and the news that a few enemy ships have been sunk is not going to lull us to sleep again,” writes Mrs H. M. Wilson, formerly of Pio Pio, and a member of the Waikato Hospital Board, and now of Wellington. THE WORSHIP OF MAMMON “As I see it, it is not want of courage or lack of desire to assist the war effort that keeps men still running about the town to make money, and women still running about to spend it. It is the necessity of vigilance in our own affairs. We must continue to sell, to buy, to advertise, to scheme, to go to work—even if we know our work to be futile. In short, we must continue to compete in the great game of life governed by money. “ Now, cannot we suspend this money business just during the crisis impending ? The danger may be upon us, or it may pass, sooner than we think. My suggestion is that every commodity should' be rationed by means of coupons given to rich and poor alike, in the same manner as petrol coupons are issued. It need not be short rationing. New Zealand can afford to feed her people generously in most products. A sheaf of coupons would be issued to each individual and one, perhaps two, each day, for a chosen luxury or commodity that is likely to be short on the market. For children’s requirements the coupons would be suitably marked. USE OF COUPONS “ Whether the coupon holder is working or not should make no difference, but the Government should give orders that every man and woman continue his or her daily task as before, until the work they are doing is cut from under. This would happen automatically in luxury trades. Furs, jewellery, and clothes for adornment would be stored in the safest place their vendors could find, and the men and women who dealt in them, as well as their subsidiary employees, such as advertisers, would come out and help in the war effort. All clothes could be counted as luxuries in the earlier stages. There would be an •absolute stoppage of money transactions. Each one would go on with his work, and be fed, but wages, salaries, interest, rents, incomes of all sorts, would be suspended. “ But what about those with commitments ? Well, they must be suspended, too, except those from overseas. Everything connected with finance could wait till the country got on a war footing. Then, when the crisis is over, or the danger considered not so pressing, the money game should be resumed again, and in no way disorganised by the holiday. OBJECTIONS EXAMINED “ There are objections. I know thatPeople ask: Would not the community still deal in money from habit and from desire for profit ? The authorities could prevent that by announcing that the present issue of notes would not,, or might not, be legal tender when normal times return. This is easy enough in the case of notes, and some trifling trafficking with silver could be overcome. It could also be enacted that documents, agreements of sale and purchase, deeds of gift, etc., signed during the war footing period, will not be legally binding. “ The return to normal difficulties need not be too complicated. During the period of stress the Government commandeers all commodities needed for the rationing, crediting the price of these to the producer and supplying them to the Rationing Board. In cases of overseas commodities like tea and sugar, the Government would buy them in the ordinary way. In the case of internal produce the matter is simple; if coupons for, say, fifty tons of beef are issued, just that amount, no more, no less, need be purchased from the producer. WEEKLY SUSTENANCE “ When it is considered advisable to return to normal, there are several ways. The Government may appropriate the whole of the national income for the times when the nation was fed by coupons at the Government’s expense—.interest, rents, salaries, wages, income—everything. If the war actually comes to our shores every cent would be needed, and should not be grudged. The rich man, of course, sacrifices more than the wage-earner, but then he has more to lose in case of enemy invasion. If, on the other hand, it is our astonishing luck to be fought for and defended far from our own shores, the Government could appropriate from each person’s income just exactly the cost of the rations distributed—say, £1 a week, or perhaps £1 10s, maybe adding a percentage to cover the cost of the scheme. Though this cost would be negligible because those who administered .it would not receive salaries, simply ration cards. This factor would also keep the general cost of the country’s administration down to a minimum. Therefore, the Government would handle sufficient funds to pay producers and overseas suppliers, if any, for the commodities they had advanced on credit during the war effort period. PREFERABLE TO JAPANESE INVASION “Finally, it may be objected that it would all be very upsetting for the people, and they would dislike it immensely. I fancy they would dislike a Japanese invasion more immensely. The politicians say: ‘ The people will not stand for it.’ I believe they will not stand much longer for an inefficient war effort. I believe that if the people knew (the radio should be used to‘tell them) what a Japanese invasion means, they would not only stand for it, but-demand it.”