Functional socialism

CAPITAL 139

class population. And it is equally certain that the wrong direction given to industrial policy by financecapital, greedy for quick returns and impatient of long-term investments, must sooner or later work its own destruction. As we have gathered from our survey of economic development, modern capitalism is based on false values. These false values frustrate the economic and ethical claims of social needs.

Are there, then, any signs of Bruno Hildebrand’s prophecy coming true? Are we in reality moving from a money economy to a credit economy? There are many such signs. There is a growing resentment in many quarters against the dominance of the banks. Yet our banking system is the best in the world. Nevertheless our monetary system is under scrutiny, both amongst capitalists and workers. The community, too, is showing a growing inclination to claim the pool of credit now in the legal control of the banks, but actually the creation of the workers in every grade of the industrial hierarchy. The absence, too, of any feasible planning, disclosing appalling disorder where order and foresight ought to be, proves the intellectual bankruptcy of Capitalism. Those working for change are seriously handicapped in several ways. The exhaustion, psychological as well as physical, of so ominous a proportion of the workers cannot be too seriously regarded. If our economy had long ago only recognized that value derives from the satisfaction of needs! The chief obstacle to be overcome before we are out of the financial wood is to decide—and give effect to our