Michael August - September 2013

hol and poisons. The workers themselves also give

in to this distortion: they will look to be employed

wherever the pay is highest, even if what they are

producing is useless or even harmful. Even when

this means helping monopolies to grow, and expand

their economic dictatorship.

To associate income solely with employment is

to forget the true purpose for which income exists.

Income supplies purchasing power which, in turn, is

a means to allow production to achieve its end; the

satisfaction of the needs of all human beings.

When it comes to international trade, how many

so-called learned people confuse ends and means,

while losing sight of the only logical purpose of ex-

portation; to allow a greater variety of goods for

the population of all the countries involved — im-

porting and exporting nations. Those who claim that

the economy of a nation is successful if that nation

manages to export more goods than it imports, mis-

take money for the actual wealth, when in actuality,

the true wealth of a nation is its production! If more

products are leaving our country than coming back

into our country, this represents an actual impover-

ishment for our nation, since there are less products

available for our population.

A few more concepts

To be able to understand Social Credit, one must

also admit to a few basic concepts that are almost

completely ignored in the present system.

First, the concept that money, in whatever form

— metal, paper, checks from bank accounts, digital

data in a computer — has a social function. Social,

because it is accepted by everyone, not because of

its intrinsic value, which would be only the value of

metal or paper, but because of its legal status. Social,

because each monetary unit — one dollar, for ex-

ample — can obtain up to that amount on any goods

or service offered on the market. Any goods issued

from a farm, from the mines, from a factory… goods

produced by anyone, and professional services of

any type.

Money can therefore mobilize the productive

capacity of a nation in any sector, according to the

whim of he who has it. Money therefore confers a

certain security over all that comes out of the nation-

al production.

However, money is not the result of a spontan-

eous generation. It has its beginning somewhere.

The money that is presently in circulation now, has

its beginning somewhere. Any new increase in the

money supply of the nation, has its beginning some-

where. Wherever this money is created, and by

whom it is authorized to be created, one question

always arises:

To whom does this money belong

when it is created?

Social Credit’s immediate response to this all-

important question is:

“Money, right from its “birth”

(creation), belongs to society.”

What individual, what group, what private insti-

tution can, from its own authority, pretend to own all

that is produced in the country? Only society as a

whole, has this right. Only society, through the Gov-

ernment that represents it, can issue the claims on

goods.

Everyone today should know that it is not the

Government that creates money, nor is it the manu-

facturers. All those who have taken the time to study

the subject know that all new money is issued from

the banking system in the form of financial credit, as

loans to the borrowers.

When a bank creates this credit, it actually gives

to the borrower a claim on the percentage of the na-

tional production corresponding to the amount of

the loan. Since the bank lends on its own terms, it

considers this issue of financial credit, as belonging

to them. On what authority can the banks confer, in

this way, upon the borrower, a claim on the work and

products of other members of the community?

One could admit money issued by banks, pro-

vided this money, or financial credit, is considered

the property of society as a whole, and treated as

such, and not the property of the banks. This is not

the case in the present system. Today it is the exact

opposite: It is society that must find a way for the

borrower to pay both the capital and the interest de-

manded by the banks for the usage of a credit that,

by rights, belongs to society.

The founder of the Social Credit school, Clifford

Hugh Douglas, wrote in

Economic Democracy

(p.

120):

“There is no doubt whatever that the first step

towards dealing with the problem is the recogni-

tion of the fact that what is commonly called credit

by the banker is administered by him primarily for

the purpose of private profit, whereas it is most

definitely communal property... The banking sys-

tem has been allowed to become the administrator

of this credit and its financial derivatives with the

result that the creative energy of mankind has been

subjected to fetters which have no relation what-

ever to the real demands of existence.”

Once this is understood, one can easily take of-

fence in seeing the citizens of a country paying twice,

and sometimes even more, for schools and other

public utilities that were made by the work of society

as a whole.

It is this control by private interests of a social

instrument — money — that causes Canadian tax-

payers to pay billions of dollars ever year in inter-

est charges on a debt that keeps growing. (Even if

the debt of the Federal Government goes down, the

total debt of all administrations, corporations, and in-

dividuals necessarily keeps growing year after year,

since all money is created as a debt; otherwise there

would be no money at all in circulation.)

Here is another concept violated by the present

system and which everyone should acknowledge:

The population must not pay for what it produ-

ces, but for what it consumes, and even there, only

as much as it consumes.

If this notion were applied, there would be no

public debt, for one cannot consume more than

what has been produced.

The present financial system is accepted with

all its terms, without even wondering if it actually

achieves its true purpose of a sound financial sys-

tem. This purpose, or end, should certainly not be

to control, rule, or dictate, but to serve; to serve the

economic system and to supply a practical way to

Three books on Social Credit

To study the cause of the present financial

crisis, we offer these books on Social Credit at a

special price (shipping included):

Social Credit in 10 lessons:

$12.00

In this Age of Plenty:

$25.00

From Debt to Proserity:

$10.00

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published in magazine format. If you know someone who can

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subscription, or subscribe yourself to improve your skills in a

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tions: $20 for 4 years (20 euros for two years in Europe).

Send your cheque or money order (and don’t forget to men-

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mobilize the productive capacity of the nation, satis-

fying the needs of the consumers, and supplying a

way to distribute efficiently the goods in order for

them to reach those who need them.

Since it is the consumers themselves who know

best their needs, it is they who should dictate pro-

duction. This can only be done effectively if the con-

sumers are in possession of the financial means.

Consumers express their needs when they choose

products and they can only make these choices as

long as they have the purchasing power.

Douglas wrote in 1934 in

Credit Power and Dem-

ocracy

(p. 102):

“The business of a modern and effective finan-

cial system is to issue credit to the consumer, up to

the limit of the productive capacity of the produ-

cer, so that either the consumer’s real demand is

satisfied, or the producer’s capacity is exhausted,

whichever happens first.”

One notices today that neither case exists. The

demand of the consumers is not satisfied, and the

producers’ capacity is not exhausted; the financial

credit issued to consumers does not reach either

limit

Social Credit would solve this problem with the

dividend to all.

As to the methods for applying the Social Credit

principles, these may vary. The main thing is that

these methods preserve the principles mentioned

above. It must be taken into account what already

exists and what we wish to achieve, making sure

that the desired result will be obtained with the least

amount of changes or turmoil, and establishing the

goals, the objectives, the politics of these changes,

right from the star

Louis Even

MICHAEL August/September 2013