Page 11 - A Social Dividend: An Income Guaranteed to Each Citizen
P. 11

the concept was developed by
        Douglas, the total amount of
        wages  would  have  gone  down
        instead  of  up  as the  number  of
        hours worked decreased. Mean-
        while, Social Dividends would
        have grown considerably to
        everyone’s satisfaction. Taken
        together, wages and dividends
        would  allow  the  distribution  of
        all the goods needed in meeting
        real needs.
            Instead, producers, wage
        earners  and  owners  veered
        from conflict to conflict. Eventu-
        ally they increased their respect-
        ive incomes and added to their
        wages and profits that which
        should have been distributed as         The present banking system resembles the golden calf
        Dividends to each member of so-     of old; we are its servants and slaves. The Social Dividend
        ciety. This theft of the Social Divi-  would access for us our cultural heritage and make us free.
        dend owed to everyone added                              In a Social Credit economy, the first incentive
        into prices what ought to have been free. We can     would be less important and the second would
        characterize this as robbery. The resulting inflation   dominate. As less human labour is required in
        has satisfied no one — not the thieves nor the vic-  modern production environments, the more that
        tims.                                                competency  and  good  client  service  could  take
        35. What did Douglas mean by “progressively dis-     hold. Everyone would benefit from the fruits of
            place...”?                                       production.  According  to  Douglas,  we  would
            Over time, the volume of production depends      enjoy a society in which there was “an aristocracy
        less  and  less on  workers’ efforts and more  and   of producers at the service of a democracy of con-
        more on progress, applied science and the advan-     sumers.”
        cement of machinery and techniques, including        37. Could the Social Dividend become more
        the increase in the use of non-human sources of          important than wages?
        energy, such as electrical, steam, oil and gas, etc.     When production is owed more and more to
            The use of the word “progressively” implies      progress and less and less to human labour, pur-
        two things once a Dividend is established:           chasing power must originate more from “free
            1. An increase in the volume of production ir-   money” and less from wages. If production was
        respective of the work done by producers, and        completely automated, and if no wages were dis-
            2. Progress in the way we understand society.    tributed,  products  would  need  to  be  purchased
                                                             using free money alone.
            The former refers to material progress, which
        is expanding and will continue to expand, un-            We  are  headed  in  that  direction  and  so  free
        less a catastrophe takes human knowledge back        money should be placed into consumers’ hands.
        by centuries. The latter refers to social progress.   If not, the financial system is not consistent with
        The teaching of Social Credit contributes to so-     the facts of progress.
        cial progress while the financial reforms of Social   38. Would this not revolutionize the production
        Credit would enhance it.                                 system?
        36. Would this harm the motivation of producers ?        No, there would be no need to drastically
        Douglas wrote that producers have two types of       change production methods. It is distribution
        incentives today:                                    which lags behind. Only a sound social entity with
                                                             authority over money can guarantee efficient dis-
            1. Income; and                                   tribution. It is society’s duty to organize a more ef-
            2. The pleasure of transforming natural resour-  ficient distribution system in which no one will be
        ces.                                                 left behind.


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