Relation of Employment to an Economic System

Abstract

A MEMORANDUM "Employment After the War" submitted by the Social Credit Co-ordinating Committee, Greno House, Swinton, Mexborough, Yorks (3d.), for the consideration of Sir William Beveridge, argues that full employment is not the right objective of an efficient economic system. The essential function of industry is to supply the goods and services which people require, and it is no part of the function of industry to deprive people of leisure or to keep them occupied in order to reduce the difficulties of Government. Social security, with freedom, can only be realized if we recognize, first, that production is no longer a major problem: the problem to-day is that of distributing the abundance of goods that can be produced. Further, money is the social mechanism for the distribution of goods: thirdly, science has so well succeeded in harnessing solar energy to the service of man that the need for human labour in industry has decreased and will continue to decrease progressively; and, lastly, the true purpose of employment is to provide goods and services for our use and not to provide people with incomes. The memorandum then briefly summarizes the Social Credit proposals: a national credit office; the institution of a scientific price discount; and the distribution of national dividends. These proposals are designed to deal with what is described as the real problem, which is not how to share out the hours of work available, but how to remove from unemployment its ugly concomitants of frustration and a low standard of living.