Slogans are not Enough

Better Distribution For Better Living

R. J. Kugelman

1947

Published in:

Great Lakes Technocrat May/June 1947, No. 85
Technocracy Digest 1st quarter 1997, No. 323

If you become confused while reading this article, which gives statistics about events around 1945, and you see that they are the same ones we are experiencing in 1996, that's because it was written in 1947. You will notice that, even after 50 years, nothing much has changed -- except to get worse. It seems odd to Technocrats that people haven't `clued in' to what is going on, and made the needed changes which were obvious to us over 60 years ago. -- Editor
So much emphasis, today, is placed on the production of goods which is supposed to mean better living for all of us. So many articles in the newspapers and television, harping on production, production -- but the word distribution, an equally important function, is never mentioned. In the flood of propaganda poured forth by the Associations of Manufacturers, the Chambers of Commerce, and other organizations, plus a host of economists, the key may change from time to time, but the tune remains the same.

Regardless of how much production we have, there will be but little increase in the average person's standard of living until we have a more efficient system of distribution than now exists. Our system of exchange did a fair job of distributing the limited production of our scarcity economy prior to 1919. Since then it has broken down under the impact of potential abundance and now does more to retard than to facilitate the flow of goods and services to consumers. This is clearly shown by the admission in a magazine article, that: ...``in the 40 years before World War II real earnings of industrial workers were approximately doubled.''

This statement means little, since it gives no hint as to how low the real income was at the beginning of the 40-year period. If a starving man has a quarter loaf of bread and someone gives him another quarter of a loaf, his real income has been raised 100 percent. The improvement in his lot consists in the fact that he can now starve at a slower rate.

If our Price System is so wonderful, why has it taken four decades for a nation with over 50 percent of the world's resources to only double the standards of just one group of workers? If any other nation had only six-and-one-half percent of the world's population but possessed over 50 percent of the world's resources and required 40 years to double the living standards of people, our propagandists, who uphold the Price System, would turn on them with scorn instead of glorifying them.

After generations of Price System operations on this rich Continent, why were one-third of our people still ill-fed, ill-housed and ill-clad? That damning indictment of our failure to increase living standards by much more, indicates that the vaunted free enterprise system is mostly hot air.

During the 1944 boom year, the Senate Special Investigating Committee reported that, some ``...20,000,000 people in the United States exist between subsistence and privations'', or semi-pauperism. In the same year, Surgeon-General, Vice-Admiral, Ross T. McIntire of the U.S. Navy revealed that: ``About 23,500,000 fellow Americans are suffering from chronic diseases and physical impairment because they cannot afford to pay the high fees demanded by private medical practitioners.'' That plainly indicates that even the vast outpouring of a flood of easy money from taxpayers did not effect any proportionate increase in the distribution of goods and services.

In the super-boom year of 1946, over 175,000 small businesses gave up the struggle, according to the Department of Commerce. That is a daily average of almost 480 failures per day. Nearly thirty out of every hundred small business organizations fail in the first year and about two-thirds quit before the end of the fourth year.

Production for Waste

This is a Price System economy which can be maintained only by the continual creation of artificial scarcity, because abundance destroys price.

For instance, when we hear about a supposed `surplus' of food stuffs, say, potatoes, they were either left to rot or deliberately destroyed all over the nation. This surplus does not mean that those bushels of potatoes were not needed by millions of people existing on sub-standard diets. It means that there were more potatoes than people had the required money to pay for. Waste, misuse, and destruction are necessary to maintain the outmoded price structure upon which our economy is based.

One magazine stated that ``...we can double our standard of living again in 20 years if we have peace and a reasonably stable economy.'' Since we never had a stable economy in the 22 years of peace that preceded Pearl Harbour, what is going to stabilize it now? All the Price System has to offer is more of the same type of operation that brought instability originally.

Is it possible to have either peace or a stable economy under 167,000 different government bodies, federal, state, county, local and city, when all of them overlap, duplicate, and conflict with each other? Adding to that mess, we have over 3,500,000 entrepreneurs constantly fighting each other or conniving against `Welfare.' This is not mentioning the numerous minority pressure groups fighting for special advantages.

Out of Many -- One

Even Roger Babson, who is a staunch defender of the Price System, in a 1933 article, entitled ``Don't Let Them Kid You'' admitted: ``...the Technocrats are right in criticizing our seventeenth century system of giving eternal life to debt,'' and ``We cannot continue in a twentieth century mechanistic age with a seventeenth century financial system.'' By those two admissions, Mr. Babson practically nullified most of his article which was, chiefly, an adverse criticism of Technocracy.

If we want to avoid a severe depression, which may develop into an economic cataclysm, the theme song of the Price System ``Produce and Destroy'' must be quickly changed to ``Produce and Distribute'' scientifically. In an integrated economy, based on functional operations, such as the Technate of North America, all forms of scarcity would quickly disappear. Instead of requiring another 20 years to double our present standard of living it could easily be trebled, or quadrupled, in much less time.

In a Technate, our thousands of conflicting governmental bodies would be replaced with a single government of functional control, operated by a Continental board of governors. You will not elect these governors because you like their personal charm or their persuasive radio voice. They will be chosen on the basis of their demonstrated ability, in some previous capacity, to perform their essential functions on the board. Here we have order replacing chaos.

Instead of millions of North Americans living in wretched shacks unfit for human habitation, there would be modern scientific housing far surpassing the best there is today. It would take only a few years to do this.

Today, we have a totally inadequate rail and highway transportation system, with its thousands of needless deaths every year. In a Technate, we would soon have a smooth-running, efficient system of rail and highway transportation far superior to the best there is now.

Today, our educational system is a shambles. Our schools are short over 60,000 teachers. Over 10,000 classrooms are closed entirely, and other thousands are supervised by under-qualified personnel. In a Technate, we would have a real educational system, far superior to the best today. The quantity and quality of education would be raised to new heights. Students would travel all over North America, on vastly improved waterways, as a part of their education. They would visit and inspect industries and farms. Thus, they would learn, at first hand, what processes were being used. Each one would be in a better position to determine what vocation to pursue in later life. Occupational misfits and economic and social frustrations would be reduced to a minimum.

Thus, not only the coming generations would benefit greatly, but the whole social system would also be enriched by greater contributions to it. Today, we jump around blindly, from job to job, trying to make more money so as to `get by' a little better. We spend a prodigious amount of effort in figuring `angles' to `beat the system.' It would be far simpler and easier to change the system than to chase around in insane circles. The job would only have to be done once.

`Sloganeering' or Engineering

In summarizing, Technocracy Inc. states that: in a Technate, every man, woman and child would be assured of adequate food, clothing, housing, education and health protection; plus equal opportunity in life for all citizens, and security from birth to death. This can be realized in far less than twenty years. These factors sum up to better distribution. This is inherent in the form of organization and operation of the Technate of North America. It spells better living for all.

All the successful chiselers under the Price System may be very adept at `sloganeering', but slogans are not enough. What is needed is engineering -- social engineering. Slogans solve no social problems under the Price System. Their purpose is to get your eyes off the problem. North America needs a new way to live; a new design of social operations. The possibility for this exists in our present advanced stage of technological development. The social design for translating this possibility into reality also exists. Technocracy has the blueprint. The necessity for adopting this design will become more pressing in the immediate future.

North Americans owe it to themselves to check up on Technocracy's analysis and synthesis. Join Technocracy and investigate it from the inside. Then help do something about it.