WHAT IS SOCIAL CREDIT ABOUT?
In this age of plenty for all, SOCIAL CREDIT campaigns for optimum economic
security and political freedom for each individual. This means first an assured BASIC
INCOME over and above earnings. It also means using the power of voters over their
political representatives, local and national, to get the results people want. How can these aims be met?
THE BASIC INCOME
The production of goods and services is now so efficient that it can provide A
SUFFICIENCY FOR ALL. But because of the application of science and technology, even fewer people need to be employed in the process. So, in modern economies, increasing productivity exists side by side with “unemployment” and job insecurity, ie, ‘poverty amidst plenty’ in various forms.
The major factor in this situation is automation, machines of all kinds replacing
human labour in industry, commerce and agriculture. This follows from the
accumulated knowledge of generations of scientists, engineers and inventors. Its effect is to provide us with an abundance of goods and services, while simultaneously depriving more and more people of their incomes through unemployment and early retirement.
Contrary to orthodox economics which advocates ‘economic growth’ to provide
‘more jobs’, Social Credit recognises that ‘unemployment’ is not a ‘problem’ to be ‘solved’ by ‘making work’, but is the opportunity to develop a more leisured and harmonious society. Just as we have freely inherited the works of Shakespeare, Beethoven, Rembrandt and countless others in the arts, so we have freely inherited the benefits of science and technology. It is OUR COMMON CULTURAL HERTAGE, entitling each of us to an equal and fair share in it as our birthright in the form of a NATIONAL DIVIDEND. On this basis of our common cultural heritage, unemployment can be transmuted into more leisure with a BASIC INCOME FOR ALL.
Such dividends would be over and above earnings. To forestall any possibility of
inflation, the National Dividend to all individuals would be matched by a reduction in
retail prices to the consumer through the mechanism of the JUST PRICE. This is best
visualised as the reverse of VAT. As VAT increases prices, so the Just Price would
reduce them, so eliminating inflation for good.
Financing the national Dividend and the Just Price necessitates reforming the present
monetary system so that it accurately reflects the realities of modern economies, ie,
abundance, not scarcity. Money is not Wealth but only its token, and tokens cost next
to nothing to produce. So what is physically possible and socially desirable can
certainly be made financially possible. The technicalities of doing so are fully
explained in the available literature. A 700-volume Social Credit section is on public
access at the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
GETTING RESULTS PEOPLE WANT
This reform needs a well-informed electorate to demand RESULTS which are clearly
socially desirable and physically possible by applying pressure on their political
representatives, local and national, under the sanction of dismissal if the results are
not forthcoming. This envisages by-passing party politics by voters themselves taking
the initiative to formulate their own policies.
Political parties represent particular interests and each manifesto reflects those
interests. Conflicting arguments such as privatisation v. nationalisation, or between
more or less taxation only serve to divide electors on complex technicalities they are
not professionally qualified to decide upon.
By contrast, provided the result demanded is shown to be physically possible, voters
could unite on such a demand as ‘Basic Income as a Right’. All that is necessary is a
few activists in each constituency to run a ‘Citizens Policy Association’ to formulate
the results required, apply the pressure of informed opinion on their representatives,
and avoid getting involved in the technicalities of achieving them, which are the
responsibilities of politicians and their expert advisers.
SUMMARY
Social Credit campaigns for optimum economic and political freedom for each
individual by ensuring (a) consumer control over production – economic democracy;
(b) voter control over policy – political democracy. Social Credit stands against the
political party system, the existing financial system, and against all concentration of
power over individuals, whether economic or political.
“A phrase such as ‘there is no money in the country with which to do such and such’
means absolutely nothing unless we are also saying ‘the goods and services required
to do this thing do not exist and cannot be produced, therefore it is useless to create
the money equivalent of them’. For instance, it is simply childish to say that a country
has no money for social betterment or for any other purpose when it has the skill, the
men and materials to create that betterment. The banks or the Treasury can create the
money in five minutes, and are doing it every day..’ C. H. Douglas, founder of Social
Credit in “Control and Distribution of Production” (2nd edn.) (1934)