Major C.H. Douglas on "The Causes of War" - part 2

Talk on BBC Radio in November 1934 by Major C.H. Douglas as part of a series on the Causes of War. Douglas was the founder of the Social Credit movement.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Major Douglas
• Social Credit
• war
• national dividend
• Bank of England
• Federal Reserve
• Montagu Norman
• John D. Rockefeller
• Jacob Schiff
• bankers
• armaments industry
• poverty
• poverty amidst plenty
• Great Depression
• horrors of war
• economic alternative

[robertaklinck]

@Gassebol

Unfortunately Ron Paul has a fatal weakness. He wants a commodity-based money supply, meaning for him gold and silver. This is madness. What does the availabilty of these metals have to do with the aspirations of the members of society or the potential of their resources of know-how and materials? And why couldn't gold be monopolized just as current money issuance is? What gives value to money is the real production of the economy that it represents, period.

[HickysBoy]

Social Credit Theory is a sound synthesis of socialism and capitalism.

Up the bankers!

[robertaklinck]

@deanfarry I'm sorry, but your thesis is a total non sequitur. How do you get from "the year gone by" to gold "always" being a "secure asset"? Consider, for example, that the market value of gold fell by nearly half between 1980 and 1984; it wasn't looking like a very "secure asset" then!

[deanfarry]

@robertaklinck in the year that has gone by, would you have rather owned gold or a basket of the economy represented in equities? I think you would obviously choose gold, & your returns would have far surpassed any stock. Therefore the value that gold represents is a secure asset, as it always has been regarded, and some used to cal money. Like our Founding Fathers, but the Treasonous Federal Reserve act this is no longer possible, and represents the inevitable downfall of America

[BubbaLouis]

@robertaklinck Extraordinarily astute comment. The 13 colonies were prosperous and wealthy using Colonial Scrip. In 1750 Benjamin Franklin told the British that their US paper money made them rich, in contrast to Britain. The British parliamentarians & bankers went nuts, enacted The Currency Act of 1764, and forced the Colonialists to use money pegged to Bank of England gold and silver. Guess who controlled the gold and silver? The 13 Colonies were broke within the yr. Caused Amer Rev, not T Py

[robertaklinck]

@mindOFAlibertarian "Making every dollar holder poorer"? But the dollars being held have themselves been printed "out of thin air". The substance of a $1 bill is the same as that of a $10,000 bill, and both are intrinsically worthless. The essence of money is that it is accountancy, and what bestows value on it is the faith that it will enable you to obtain what you want because of its acceptance by others.

[mindOFAlibertarian]

@robertaklinck pardon me but so what? Who are the producers of gold? Corporations - anyone could buy their shares on the stock exchange so in fact those who could afford to buy their share would control the economy. Nothing would change, because it means that simply the rich would control the entire economy and that is how the world has always worked. The problem today is that government can print money out of thin air, making every dollar holder poorer...

[robertaklinck]

@mindOFAlibertarian The existing issuance of money (mostly bank credit) is based on real value; namely, the physical assets you see all around you. When you speak of basing money on gold, are you suggesting a one-for-one value equivalence; i,e,, no fractional reserve?  If so, then the producers of gold would control the entire economy, and the problems of supply and distribution would be crippling . If not, then an elastic fractional reserve ratio would put us about where we are today.

[mindOFAlibertarian]

@robertaklinck Social credit is a fascinating idea. But I don't entirely get it. What is wrong with gold? I am against banks creating money by giving loans. Money tough, should be based on smth that has real value. You wrote about "aspirations of the members of society". I would reverse it: every nation has HUGE aspirations, what aspiration of a society or its member have to do with real value? Gold or silver have real value as scarce metals - supply and demand! How to measure "aspirations"?

[Hiphop101ize]

Who thought the answer to world peace could be found on youtube

[robertaklinck]

@MrStephenRBrown The really pathetic aspect of the situation is that people accept the proposition that technological progress can impoverish society because it throws people out of work. We're obviously richer, and it's just a matter of enabling consumers to benefit from our improved situation.

I agree with you about love being the motivation, but love needs means of conveyance in order to become effective. This is, as Douglas said, the significance of the Incarnation.

[robertaklinck]

Douglas was not endeavoring to create such a synthesis. He was an engineer concerned to fix a system that was not operating efficiently (his standard for efficiency being freedom and security for all individuals). However, if you want to see the results of his analysis in such a way, I think the idea would be better expressed by saying that Social Credit reconciles the best aspects of socialism and capitalism. Do not forget that those two terms mean different things to different people.