Study Course in Social Credit
By J.M. Hattersley
Postscript
We have come now to the end of this study of the principles and policies of Social Credit. In the course of it, I hope that we have come to understand that Social Credit is something more than just another political party, and something more than just another economic scheme. It is an answer – THE answer – to the most basic human problems of our times.
Our modern Capitalist system, based as it is on the profit motive and the encouragement and reward of personal initiative, has brought humankind to the dawn of an age of plenty never before known in history. At the same time the breakdown of the morally based order of the age that preceded it has allowed avaricious men, consciously or otherwise, to profit not simply as a result of the value they give to their fellow men, but by capturing for themselves the values given to all from our common association in society, whether this is expressed in terms of the value of land, labour, capital facilities, or credit.
The issue of today is the issue of Automation, and the question of how to distribute incomes to mankind with which to buy the products of the machine, when automated production needs less and less human labour, and so distributes fewer and fewer incomes, with which its products can be bought. Traditional Capitalism, whereby people make their incomes from sale or rent of their property or their labour, and most people in practice make a living by selling their labour, can give no other answer than futile schemes to secure “full employment” by “making work” in an age where work is being done away with, and such work as is required may entail many years of specialized and expensive training.
Even in countries claiming to be Capitalist across the globe today, we see the growth of Socialist programs forced on reluctant governments by the economic necessity of providing incomes and social services such a health care to citizens who otherwise could not afford them. Because they come “for free” - at a cost to the taxpayer – they are grudgingly accepted by those who make use of them, but the inefficiency of “one size fits all” programs, and the loss of personal freedom of choice, makes them a second best alternative. The experiment of state planning through Communism has now been reversed in Russia, and is under enormous strain and at great sacrifice of human freedom and welfare in China and North Korea.
Communism should not be regarded as the opposite of Capitalism. It is the logical outcome of Capitalism. It is a creed that believes correctly that the capitalist classes, by owning the means of production and distribution, have become the exploiters of the mass of the people. Yet if the working classes stage a revolution to throw off this Capitalist yoke, they also throw off the undoubted advantages in the production of wealth that Capitalism provides, and that even now workers in Capitalist countries enjoy to a far higher degree than those under Communism.
It is towards Socialism that most nations are tending in their governmental policies at the present time. These constitute, in their activities at any rate, a progressive abandonment of the monetary system altogether. Greater and greater is the proportion of income that the State takes away in taxes. More and more “free” services are provided by the State. The end of such a system is the elimination of all personal initiative and freedom of choice, except such choice as comes from being allowed to elect Parliamentary candidates on meaningless platforms, once every four years.
The economic system of the Middle Ages had the advantage of giving everyone a place in a stable order of society. Capitalism that replaced this gave the advantage that it encouraged the initiative and invention that has made possible the material riches that the world can enjoy at the present time. The policies of Social Credit are the world's next need, so that we can enjoy the economic advantages and freedom of choice given by Capitalism and the use of money, while eliminating its features of exploitation of people and of the environment, and fit all people once again into a stable, secure and prosperous framework of society, without dampening the spirit and the rewards of personal initiative.
“A small impetus from a body of men who know what to do and how to do it, may make the difference between yet one more retreat into the Dark Ages, or the emergence into the full light of a day of such splendour as we can at present only envisage dimly.” You, good reader, who have studied and understood this course, can now number yourself in this body. This is your sacred trust. A troubled and bewildered world is seeking for the knowledge you now have to set it to rights. Do not fail it.
