THIS FREEDOM

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 75, Issue 6442, 5 November 1947, Page 11

THIS FREEDOM

WHAT IS IT? PRESENT DAY TENDENCY The following article was contributed to the Taihape Times:— To tell his employer to go to Hades, to toss in his job and to secure employment with another boss is the freedom every worker has. This privilege is enjoyed by workers everywhere, provided they are not employees of a Socialistic State. If employed by private enterprise, either by a company or an individual, and the job becomes distasteful, then the worker has the right to change his job and select a new employer. Competitors in various Jines of business are always on the look out for good men and the worker can select his job and his boss to suit himself. What of the employee of the State? His boss’ business extends over the whole country and if he becomes fed up with his job there is nowhere else tp go. His employer has a monopoly of business and of jobs. The unfortunate employee of the Government has not got that freedom enjoyed by every other worker in the country. Under Socialism the State takes over all business and becomes the one employer of labour. The worker has one boss and if he does not like the job there are no other avenues open to him. He thus loses the most valuable privilege that a wage earner has. As the Government grabs first one class of business and then another, so the freedom of the worker to choose his employer slowly fades away. Private ownership and free competitive enterprise are the types of employment that retain for the worker those rights he values most of all. ‘