Overproduction?
Rev. A. C. Auchmuty: Gems from George,
a themed collection of excerpts from the writings of Henry
George (with links to sources)
IN the Old Testament we are told that, when the Israelites journeyed through
the desert, they were hungered, and that God sent down out of the heavens — manna.
There was enough for all of them, and they all took it and were relieved.
But, supposing that desert had been held as private property, as the soil
of Great Britain is held; as the soil even of our new states is being held.
Supposing that one of the Israelites had a square mile, and another one had
twenty square miles, and another one had a hundred square miles, and the
great majority of the Israelites did not have enough to set the soles of
their feet upon, which they could call their own — what would become
of the manna? What good would it have done to the majority? Not a whit. Though
God had sent down manna enough for all, that manna would have been the property
of the landholders; they would have employed some of the others, perhaps,
to gather it up in heaps for them, and would have sold it to the hungry brethren.
Consider it: this purchase and sale of manna might have gone on until the
majority of the Israelites had given up all they had, even to the clothes
off their backs. What then? Well, then they would not have had anything left
with which to buy manna, and the consequence would have been that while they
went hungry the manna would be lying in great heaps, and the landowners
would be complaining about the over-production of manna. There would have been
a great harvest of manna and hungry people, just precisely the Phenomenon
that we see today. — The Crime of Poverty
... go to "Gems from George"
Louis Post: Outlines of Louis F. Post's
Lectures,
with Illustrative Notes and Charts (1894)
Let us now complete this chart. When we began it a distinction was noted
between Personal Servants, who render mere intangible services, and the
other classes, who produce tangible wealth. But essentially there is
no difference. By referring to the chart and observing the course of
the arrows, Food-makers are seen working for Personal Servants precisely
as Personal Servants work for Luxury-makers. We may therefore abandon
the distinction. This makes it no longer necessary to mention particular
classes of products in the chart; it is enough to distinguish the different
kinds of labor.76 Thus:
76. "This, then, we may say is the great law which binds society — 'service
for service.' "— Dick's Outlines, p. 9.
For simplicity the workers have been divided into great classes, and
each class has been supposed to serve only one other class. But the actual
currents of trade are much more complex. It would be practically impossible
to follow them in detail, or to illustrate their particular movements
in any simple way. And it is unnecessary. The principle illustrated in
the chart is the principle of all division of labor and trade, however
minute the details and intricate the movement; and any person of ordinary
intelligence who wishes to understand will need only to grasp the principle
as illustrated by the chart to be able to apply it to the experiences
of everyday industrial life. All legitimate trade is the interchange
of Labor for Labor.77
77. In the light of this principle how absurd are some of the explanations
of hard times.
Overproduction! when an infinite variety of wants
are unsatisfied which those who are in want are anxious and able
to satisfy for one
another.
Hatters want bread, and bakers want hats, and farmers want both,
and they all want machines, and machinists want bread and hats and
machines,
and so on without end. Yet while men are against their will in partial
or complete idleness, their wants go unsatisfied! Since producers
are also consumers, and production is governed by demand for consumption,
there can be no real overproduction until demand ceases. The apparent
overproduction which we see — overproduction relatively to "effective
demand" — is in fact a congestion of some things due to
an abnormal underproduction of other things, the underproduction
being caused
by obstructions in the way of labor.
Scarcity of capital! when makers of capital in all its forms are involuntarily
idle. Scarcity of capital, like scarcity of money, is only an expression
for lack of employment. But why should there be any lack of employment
while men have unsatisfied wants which they can reciprocally satisfy?
Too much competition! when competition and freedom
are the same. It is not freedom but restraint, not competition but
protection, that obstructs
the action and reaction of demand and supply which
we have illustrated in the chart.
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