We conclude that Inflation redistributes wealth in a manner very
injurious to the investor, very beneficial to the business man, and
probably, in modern industrial conditions, beneficial on the whole
to the earner. Its most striking consequence is its _injustice_ to
those who in good faith have committed their savings to titles to
money rather than to things. But injustice on such a scale has further
consequences. The above discussion suggests that the diminution in the
production of wealth which has taken place in Europe since the war
has been, to a certain extent, at the expense, not of the consumption
of any class, but of the accumulation of capital. Moreover, Inflation
has not only diminished the capacity of the investing class to save
but has destroyed the atmosphere of confidence which is a condition
of the willingness to save. Yet a growing population requires, for
the maintenance of the same standard of life, a proportionate growth
of capital. In Great Britain for many years to come, regardless of
what the birth-rate may be from now onwards (and at the present time
the number of births per day is nearly double the number of deaths),
upwards of 250,000 new labourers will enter the labour market annually
in excess of those going out of it. To maintain this growing body of
labour at the same standard of life as before, we require not merely
growing markets but a growing capital equipment. In order to keep our
standards from deterioration, the national capital must grow as fast
as the national labour supply, which means new savings of at least
£250,000,000[7] per annum at present. The favourable conditions for
saving which existed in the nineteenth century, even though we smile at
them, provided a proportionate growth between capital and population.
The disturbance of the pre-existing balance between classes, which in
its origins is largely traceable to the changes in the value of money,
may have destroyed these favourable conditions.
[7] That is to say, it costs not less than £1000 in new capital
outlay to equip a working man with organisation and
appliances, which will render his labour efficient, and to
house and supply himself and his family. Indeed this is
probably an underestimate.
On the other hand Deflation, as we shall see in the second section
of the next chapter, is liable, in these days of huge national debts
expressed in legal-tender money, to overturn the balance so far the
other way in the interests of the _rentier_, that the burden of
taxation becomes intolerable on the productive classes of the community.
II.--CHANGES IN THE VALUE OF MONEY, AS AFFECTING PRODUCTION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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