NATIONAL DIVIDEND.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18946, 16 May 1933, Page 7

NATIONAL DIVIDEND.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —As a further contribution to the study of social credit our indus- | trial development clearly demonstrates 'that- out of the much-abused dole there will finally evolve the national dividend; also wages and salaries will be a thing of a somewhat barbaric past. We have every reason for affirming this; for instance, the direct opposite to competition is monopoly. But as each petty unit strives to obtain a monopoly in its own field of activity, competition gradually passes into monopoly. But monopoly itself tsnds to engender competition; for whilst under the present system It is to the interest of each individual to possess all, it is to the Interest of the whole that each should possess an equal share—hence the national dividend. Labour is fast being severed not only from production, but the fruits of production likewise, because those employed at a certain definite machine to do a certain definite _ fractional operation are fast developing into a minority, or, in other words, “the available labour is continually in excess of the means of employment.’ Result, the dole, which will be followed by the national dividend. Referring to the crisis, it is nothing in the nature of an accident which can bq cured by “political splints or sticking-plaster." It is traceable to violation of economlo law. The system has produced more goods than it can possibly sell, and it continues to restrict the purchasing power of the masses. Production on the one hand and consumption on the other, which are .dependable one. on the other, can never balance, as we find things today. For instance, a person under the present structure of society is only a consumer providing he has an “equivalent" to offer —namely, a barter unit, money. If he has not that particular “equivalent" he then automatically becomes a pauper. That is to say, he consumes not of his own free will, but subject to the permission of charity, State or otherwise. Thus the “buying power" of many thousands is conditioned to and dependable upon the dole, or charity, or relief work. In the last and final analysis all roads Jead to the national dividend. —I am, etc., HARRY WOODRUFFE. Auckland, May 14, 1933.