by Louis Even
In a war, it would be no surprise to see tanks mowing down people. Even though horrible to witness, one would concede that the tanks were serving the very destructive purpose for which they were made. The tank was designed to spit out shells rather than, let us say, bring people to Mass.
However, if a car was heading straight for a pedestrian, even chasing them onto a sidewalk, one would be horrified, more so than by the actions of a tank because diverting something from its proper purpose is perverse — and the more perfect the thing is, the more criminal is the perversion.
This is occurring with the present financial system. It is one of society's most creative inventions but has become an instrument of enslavement. Conceived to be social, to serve and facilitate economic life in society, the financial system has become perverted and contrary to social life.
Economic life has been corrupted. Money has become a god, in a deeper sense than even what is inferred by the most charismatic preacher.
Money has not only become the god that an avaricious person adores when admiring his gold or bank account, it has become an exacting tyrant which all of our economic activities must serve. Instead of serving human needs, money has become the very purpose of economic life.
A field will be tilled only if it will yield an income. If not, it will be left fallow, even when many are hungry.
Shoes are manufactured if it is a paying proposition. If not, even when people are without shoes, production will halt. As long as there "is money in it" production will continue.
The same entrepreneurs will shift from one product to another and from one business to another if the first one is not profitable, and the second is. Tractors today and artillery tomorrow; wholesome food today and junk food tomorrow, depending only on the profit yield.
The worker, like his boss, serves the same tyrannical god. He goes where there is a wage, be it in home construction or in war production. Assuredly, he must earn the daily bread necessary to support his family regardless of the type of work he is asked to do, whether the work sustains life or the opposite, hastens death.
Most of the time, he does not know what use will be made of the fruits of his work. The lumberjack, the chemist and paper mill worker are there for the money. Whether the paper produced is used to print church bulletins or pornography, workers remain for the paycheck.
We do not blame the worker. He is but a slave condemned to serve in the production of money, or he and his family will starve.
This god does not only claim supremacy in economic life. Like Moloch or the Minotaur of the Greeks, human sacrifice is required and its victims are countless. Its behavior can halt all productive activity, paralyze the distribution of goods and throw millions into privations of all kinds. This malicious god seems to take great pleasure in accumulating vast inventories of goods when families have the most desperate needs but no means. The many unemployed people in Canada, and millions more of the working poor, know this experience.
It is a god with a formidable power, but also a god of discord, division and conflict, pitting one against the other: employer and employee, seller and buyer, landlord and tenant. What creates quarrels among couples? Money. What is the subject of four-fifths of court cases? Money.
It is this tyrannical god who has control over our lives that Douglas Social Crediters want to overturn. We do not want to suppress the money system, but rather to restore it to its proper function and role of service.
Like every idol, this mighty god is man-made. Its nature was clear to the world in September, 1939. When World War II was declared, money suddenly appeared after 10 desperate years of money shortage during the Great Depression.
Not once during the six-year duration of the war did a government declare: "Fighting will have to stop as there is a lack of money." This never happened! Only the available resources in men and materials were required, and the money flowed.
Overnight, the beleaguered unemployed were now eagerly recruited to become soldiers and munitions workers. The money followed and billions became available for the slaughter.
If money could be found so quickly for the government to conduct a war, money can also be provided for individuals during peacetime. There is no technical difficulty in this. It is rather a question of the will to solve a fixable problem.
After such an example, can we still say that the lack of money is a problem? This is a lie which must be unmasked.
Douglas Social Crediters call upon all patriots to stand against this tyranny. We refuse to accept artificial crises that mass-produce poverty, and we refuse wars that mass-produce casualties.
Money must be regulated by a society's capacity to produce, instead of productive capacity being limited by money.
It is ridiculous that cities and provinces forgo necessary and physically feasible development under the pretext of insufficient funding. It is absurd that public institutions, like city councils, run their populations into debt to those who produce nothing, the bankers.
The financial system should facilitate the distribution of goods to each person. This would consist of ensuring that prices of goods meet the purchasing power of the individual. One could then purchase from the array of goods that correspond to one's needs. Prices and purchasing power must be balanced, otherwise universal distribution will be impossible.
Everyone has needs from'the cradle to the grave', and so, everyone must have corresponding purchasing power. Needs are attached to the human person, and the right to use goods must also be attached to the human person. Otherwise, goods are no longer at the service of needs. We ensure this harmony by providing a Dividend to all, from birth to death.
The present way of distributing purchasing power cannot guarantee everyone a share in earthly goods because it links the right to goods almost exclusively to employment. Not everyone can be employed.
At the same time, automation reduces the demand for workers and increases productivity, resulting in fewer workers producing more goods. If a product can be manufactured or produced without human labor, access to the product must also be assured without requiring every person to be employed.
To say that each person must be employed in order to have the right to live, when the inventions and technological advancements in the manufacturing process have as a goal the reduction of labor, is to make progress in society a punitive force instead of a liberating one.
One eats food, not jobs. We wear clothes, not jobs. The claims on goods, such as food and clothing etc., should therefore be according to the presence of goods offered to satisfy human needs, and not according to a person's status in the productive process.
Douglas Social Credit, also known as Economic Democracy, offers the solution. No other workable plan has been advanced.
Social programs are proof that the distribution of goods is badly organized. The programs do not correct the system, they rather allow the corruption to persist while softening their effects.
Economic Democracy would correct this defect in the provision of money to all by distributing, on a national level, purchasing power corresponding to a nation's production, and by providing a Dividend to each person, thus ensuring each individual gets a share at least sufficient to enjoy the essentials.
Economic Democracy corrects the cause of economic chaos and disorder instead of bandaging its many flaws.
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