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depreciation) would then be entered as a decrease
of wealth. The net increase in wealth would be pro-
duction minus consumption.
With very few and passing exceptions where a
country would live at the expense of another, the
production of a country surpasses its consump-
tion. The country is becoming richer. It is therefore
absurd to say that it is going into debt. The public
debt is an absurdity.
A dividend to all
And when a country is getting richer, its citizens
must certainly draw advantage from this. This is
what Social Credit recognizes, when speaking of
a dividend to all. The modern production, in fact,
is more and more the result of applied science,
of inventions, of improvements in production
techniques, and of all these things that consti-
tute a common good: a heritage transmitted and
increased from one generation to the next. Modern
production is less and less the result of individual
labour.
Hoping to distribute the production only through
the reward of human labour, is therefore contrary
to the facts. It is at the same time impossible, for
the money distributed as recompense for work can
never buy the production that contains other ele-
ments in its prices.
Seeking salary increases with decreases in
human labour, is also to change the meaning of the
word salary. It is no more a recompense for work;
it is the inclusion in the salary of the hired persons
of what should be a dividend for all, since it is the
fruit of progress and not of labour. This deviation
is a hindrance to the desired goal, since in becom-
ing a salary instead of remaining a dividend, these
additional amounts go into the prices.
Social Credit would distribute the dividend to
everyone, directly, without charging it to industry.
It would truly raise everyone’s purchasing power.
Besides being the recognition of a very product-
ive community capital, this social dividend would
at the same time be an excellent way of satisfy-
ing the primary destination of the earthly goods.
“Earth and its riches were created for all men” (Pius
XII). This is totally ignored by the present economic
regime in its financial technique of distribution.
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ty of the current system is that the total price of the
finished goods is always higher than the amount
of money distributed as purchasing power in the
course of their production. This is inherent to the
accountancy of the present system of finance
which has no mechanism to fill the gap.
The capacity to pay is not made to equal the cap-
acity to produce. Finance and reality do not work
at the same rate. Reality means an abundance of
goods easy to produce. Finance means a shortage
of money whch is hard to obtain.
To correct what is wicked
Thus the present money system is truly an
oppressive one, when it should be a system of ser-
vice.
This does not mean that we must do away with
it, but we must correct it. The application of the
financial principles known as Social Credit would
make this correction magnificently. (Do not con-
found Social Credit with the political parties which
usurped that name while pursuing other ends and
practising an adverse policy.)
The principles of Social Credit, when applied,
would make the money system a servant instead of
a master. They were discovered and enunciated by
a genius, C. H. Douglas (deceased in 1952). His first
writings on this subject were published in 1918.
Social Credit gives priority to the realities over
the financial symbols that are not realities, sym-
bols that must simply represent, and faithfully
represent, the realities. This is why Social Credit
makes a distinction between real credit (a reality)
and financial credit (a representation or symbol).
The word “credit” comes from the Latin word
“credere” and bears the idea of confidence. Even
in everyday language, to give credit to someone, is
it not to indicate that we have confidence in him?
Social Credit calls real credit of a country what
really gives confidence in that country, confidence
that one can live there without too much difficulty.
The real credit of a country is its production cap-
acity. It is its degree of possibility to produce and
deliver the goods to the needs.
And Social Credit affirms that financial credit
must be the exact representation of the real credit.
It is therefore the production capacity that must
determine the movement of finance. It is abso-
lutely not for finance to command, paralyze or limit
the production capacity.
This is why Social Credit demands the establish-
ment of a credit office that would keep an account
of national (or provincial) credit. Any production,
those of consumption goods and those of capital
goods, would then be entered as an increase of
wealth. And all consumptions (or destruction, or