If "Business as usual" means merely that we should go on doing precisely the same things in time of war as in time of peace, it is a palpable absurdity. If it means that everybody is to keep as busy as ever or become much busier than ever, it is good advice so far as it goes. What we really need to consider is, What shall we keep ourselves and others busy doing? Shall we keep ourselves and them busy producing unnecessary things or shall we do what we can to keep ourselves and them busy doing the necessary things? Obviously the latter. "Busier than ever" is a much better motto than "Business as usual." The only way we can possibly keep everybody doing the necessary things in war time is, first, to do something ourselves which is necessary and, second, to spend all our money for necessary things. If we have more money to spend than is sufficient to purchase necessary things for our own consumption, we can either spend the surplus for tools of production in some necessary industry (that is, we can invest it) or we can turn it over to the government, the Red Cross, or some other public agency. This agency can then spend it for much-needed other things. By all means, therefore, let us keep money circulating in war time-not that this in itself means much, but because it gives direction to the real productive energy of the country. But let us see to it that every dollar which we put into circulation is put where it will do the most good,-where it will direct the productive energy of the country into the necessary rather than into the unnecessary industries. COLLATERAL READING Adams, Henry C. The Science of Finance. New York, 1898. SELIGMAN, E. R. A. The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation. American Economic Association, 1892. Four programs. CHAPTER L LABOR PROGRAMS1 All programs for the improvement of the condition of the wageworkers fall into four general classes, though there are many combinations and mixtures of these four. For the sake of brevity these four classes may be arranged as follows: I. Programs depending upon voluntary agreements among free citizens. 1. The balancing-up programs. 2. The collective-bargaining programs. II. Programs depending upon authority and compulsion. 3. The voting programs. 4. The fighting programs. By the balancing-up programs are meant all programs which aim to create or restore a balance among occupations so as to give those in one occupation the ability to bargain to their advantage as effectively as those in any other. Such a program would aim to enable the unskilled worker, as an independent bargainer, to prosper as well as the skilled worker the technician, the business manager, or the capitalist. It would aim to equalize the prosperity of different classes by first equalizing bargaining power, so that each occupational class could, by the simple process of voluntary agreement among free and equal citizens, gain as many advantages as any other occupational class. This would combine equality with 1 The substance of this chapter is found in an article by the author, entitled "Four Labor Programs," in the Quarterly Journal of Economics for February, 1919, Vol. XXXIII, No. 2. |