Pseudo prosperity

We are living in age of such potential abundance that the Money Monopolists are using every means they can think of to conceal the fact and its significance.

Politicians such as the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer repeat such catch phrases as "never before have you had it so good", and "last year was one of great prosperity", whilst all the time they are working to frustrate the higher living standards that are immediately possible.

Meanwhile, it is known that five different shipyards in the United Kingdom each have the capacity to build a new 'Queen' liner. Yet each of these shipbuilding concerns is fighting - no, begging is a better word - for the only one that is to be ordered. What a tremendous waste of capacity and ability this reveals!

It isn't as if this waste of four-fifths is unique accident of misfortune. Far from it, it is typical of the whole national economy. The oil consumption, for instance, is only five barrels per head each year in the United Kingdom, but in Canada and the U.S. it runs to nearly thiry barrels per head. When the London-Birmingham M.I. road was built, the costly equipment and organization was not permitted to go further, though the capacity and ability to continue exists but is not used. The truth is that the policy of subordinating the nation's capacity and economy to an out-of-date money system creates immense waste, frustrating access to the genuine prosperity that could be.

G. Hickling in Credit Notes, May, 1961