One of the widely circulating daily newspapers reported recently that nearly 5,000 people are in prison for debt many for failing to meet their hire-purchase commitments (instalment paying -Ed.).
What a deplorable situation. The age for imprisonment for debt has long since passed. It belongs to the England of Dickens.
If we look at the evidence, it can be seen that it belongs very much to the England of the present day Credit Monopoly, whose policy of restriction and squeeze is just as potent for evil now as it was in the days of Dickens. The newspaper, however said nothing about the inadequate money system or its controllers, but diverted attention to the fact "many people who get into trouble over hire-purchase are persuaded to buy more than they can afford by the smooth talk of skilful salesmen. Often the over-zealous salesman is as much to blame as the buyer."
"How cruel that those who are guilty of credulity should be branded for life as criminals."
Yes, it is cruel, and it is bad government, because individuals who cannot pay their debts are mostly in exactly the same position as the government itself. Many of those in prison for debt would have paid up if they could have done so; in most cases it is not a matter of being unwilling, but of being unable to pay. The distinction is important, for that is where cruelty and injustice come in. Most debtors are victims of Treasury policy, not of bad character, and the figure of 5,000 people in jail for debt is not the worst of the true picture, for credit resrtictions always send up the curve of bankruptcies and suicides. The present money system needs a change, because it creates conditions that impose cruelty on human life in a multitude of ways.
It will continue to do so until Social Credit principles are applied that is, until every person gets her or his National Dividend as a birthright to spend in addition to wages. It would be quite possible, by Social Credit, to change "hire" - purchase into "cash" purchase; to abolish taxes in favour of dividends; and to create conditions that would advance the opportunity of happiness for everybody.
G.. Hickling in Credit Notes, Sept. 1960.
Totalitarianism is, in essence, the conversion of Society into a fixed pattern - a machine which can be operated as a whole by a small group.
B. W. MONAHAN in
An Introduction to Social Credit, p. 71