THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, 16th AUGUST, 1934. A STRANGE PARADOX.

Waipa Post, Volume 49, Issue 3506, 16 August 1934, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, 16th AUGUST, 1934. A STRANGE PARADOX.

THE world is suffering from an unpleasant paradox poverty in the midst of abundance. There is an exceptionally large production of the various commodities that together constitute wealth for human beings; meanwhile there are millions of people who are living in poverty because they cannot find a market for their labour or a profitable sale for the goods they produce. The causes of this contrast are various, but a good many people have unfortunately jumped to the conclusion that the world is suffering from over production and that the remedy is to restrict output by State control, and by this means and various other devices to raise prices. The latest outcome of this policy is a partial agreement between a number of countries for the control of the out put of rubber. Nowadays meat is brought under the ban,, and there is a suspicion that dairy products will share a similar fate. Some people seem to think that their only chance of salvation lies in the compulsory restriction of output so that the sup ply of a commodity may be balanced with the demand and the price kept at a profitable figure.

How exactly this restriction of output is to be effected has not yet been explained. A great deal of the rubber supply of the world is produced by peasants working in remote parts of Asia. As long as they can earn enough to satisfy their modest wants, they will go on producing rubber, whatever large scale producers or European investors may say. To regulate the output it would be necessary to organise a gigantic police force to watch the activities of every producer throughout the world. Rubber, however, furnishes only one example of the modern policy of trying to control output in order to raise prices, and there is a growing conviction that this policy is fundamentally unsound. It might benefit a few people who were fortunate enough to be allotted a substantial quota of production and were able to work at a profit because other people’s quotas had been cut down. But as a remedy for the general problem of unemployment the scheme is absurd. It means the forcible throwing out of work of people who are for the present content to go on working for the small return that their industry may yield them. It also means that thousands, perhaps millions, of consumers who were enjoying the advantage of low prices for a particular commodity and spending their available balance on other things, will have to draw in their horns and live a narrower life. And if the consumer spends less, producers will get less employment. It is the consumer who calls the tune. The business of the producer is to watch the consumer and see what he wants. If a particular industry is producing more than consumers are willing to buy at a reasonable price, then the producer must turn his activities to some other industry. Sometimes, of course, there are difficulties; but in the main the progress of the world is expressed by the constant development of new industrial activities to meet the ever expanding new wants of the consumers.

Perhaps the most striking, illustration of this development can be seen in women’s clothing. In her earliest days Eve had to be content with one fig leaf, which she could pick for herself. To-day, in order to provide the modern Eve with covering there are hundreds —indeed thousands—of factories throughout the world spinning and weaving the materials for -her clothing. There are also numberless designers and makers of frocks, and in every town there are to be found elaborately equipped shops where wo men can go and make their choice of garments. All this mass of new employment has been created because the female consumer has changed from the ancient fig leaf to the modern frock and its accessories. Among more recent industrial developments the motor car industry is a remarkable illustration of progress. This industry was only beginning when this century came in. It gives to a very large number of people a new pleasure; it is also a vital agency

for goods transportation, and, as a consequence, there is profitable employment for tens of thousands of people. Wireless instruments and gramophones are other examples of the ever. expanding wants of the world, which result in new forms of employment for work people whose previous industries have been decaying. Developments in the use of electricity provide still another remarkable case in point. The moral seems clear and points to new wants and new work. Instead of curtailing outputs we should be expanding them and exploring every development that will provide work ior the people and so cater for their happiness. The solution is work—not money standards or artificial devices. Whenever the producers of a particular commodity find the price declining, either from over production or from lessening demand, they idiould, if possible, seek a new industry to create and satisfy a new demand. Recently our dairy industry has turned hopefully to the East where, it is claimed, a market exists for another commodity made from butter fat. Ob■viously if that market could be developed it would increase this country’s ability to exchange in other goods—leading thus to greater employment here and increased demand at the source of our supplies. An excellent example of the way in which an industry in distress can help itself, and help the world, by diverting its activities to the satisfaction of new wants, is to be seen in the development of pleasure cruises. In the older countries there has been considerable expansion along these lines, and there are signs of a similar activity in New Zealand with railways and shipping. These holiday cruises and excursions meet the human love for holiday making, and they give employment to large numbers of people. In a word, new wants make new work. Industrial and national progress will not be achieved by cutting down production. On the other hand security lies in offering every stimulus for new desires.