ECONOMICS AND THE FUTURE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21419, 11 March 1935, Page 12

ECONOMICS AND THE FUTURE

[MORE CENTRAL PLANNING ADVOCATED ADDRESS BY MR G. LAWN A vision of a future in which economics as a problem might no longer exist, and when men might be free to enter a great field of endeavour and research unfettered by considerations ' of their material welfare was described I by Mr G. Lawn, lecturer in economics at Canterbury University College, in an address on "Economic Planning" to the Social Discussion Group last evening'. Mr Lawn said that capitalism, with its lack of central planning and its grave dangers for the masses of the people, must be replaced by some more carefully planned and organised system, which would provide the world with all it needed for its material welfare, and enable humanity to enter a freer, fuller life than the present one of materialism. Mr Lawn described the development of the feudal and capitalist systems. In capitalism there was a great deal of economic planning by individuals and groups of individuals, who owned property. The general government, of the country also possessed rights of ownership of properly, and by virtue of its ownership al*so entered into planning, within the limits of its own field. At I lie same time the government stepped: out of its own field into the regulation of private activities. In various countries the Government control of private enterprise was regulated to a high degree, and this policy passed under the name of economic nationalism. But under whatever economic system there might be there was a great deal of planning. Owing to the complex economic life brought about by capitalism this problem of planning was of outstanding importance. A breakdown in plans under the capitalist system affected the Jives and welfare of large numbers of people, who had individually no share in the determination of these plans. Efi'ects of Capitalism Under capitalism there was no centralised planning of all the wealthproducing activities. There was no plan to have all activities co-operated and a breakdown avoided. It had been claimed that with each owner of property organising his own business for the maximum return, the maximum wealth would be enjoyed by all. This system had produced booms and slumps and general disorganisation. While these things were recognised people accepted them as the inevitable results of an elastic system which in the end would bring better results than the highly organised central planning. Under capitalism very serious defects arose from the lack of efficient centralised planning. Among the defects there were not only the obvious evils of unemployment, poverty, and frictions between classes and nations, but there was another defect. It was realised to-day that the power of the people, their science, and the organisation to provide for themselves high standards of Jiving, were almost immeasurable. So great was the knowledge of natural resources and of the powers (hat could be harnessed through machinery, that if this knowledge were organised, very much higher standards of material welfare could be provided than we enjoyed now or even dreamed of. This material welfare could be enjoyed with very much less work and less effort. Field for Co-operation One of the tragedies of the present system was the waste, not only of products which the market did not require, but of human energy and enterprise. This maste of effort was due to failure (o harness and co-operate energies. There was so much talk of individualism, but there existed in us a readiness to work in co-opera)ion. There was a huge field of co-operative energy we were not tapping under the present system of capitalism. The problem was how to establish those conditions which would enable economic planning to be done in a more efficient way, and so more effectively to harness human and scientific power and apply them to the natural resources, for the production of sufficient wealth for all. This economic planning was not for the whole of life—there was need today to emphasise that fact. When the community had solved the problem of organising itself lo 'produce an abundance there would still be a great field of human endeavour in which there would be tremendous scope for the thinker and research worker. For those freed from the necessity of spending all (heir hours in toiling for the necessities of existence there were very full lives waiting. There was a tendency to forget that economic planning did not, solve Ihc whole problem of life. There was a tendency (o set up an idea of communism for instance, as something I hat excluded religion. It. was said that a true communist must be an atheist, but this was absolute nonsense. Communism and Religion Communism developed material things but did not tell anything about the mysteries of life, or the origins of life. It was not in its sphere to deal with religion. People allowed themselves to be divided because they thought that if they supported certain schemes they were thereby committed to oppose themselves to religion, but this was far from true. There was before this generation a tremendous undertaking in the economic field—a job in building up a system of labour and capital and organisation of human power and natural resources, so as to retain those good things of the capitalist system and remove the evils wc now suffered. "Call it what you will," said MiLawn—"Communism, Sovielism, or anything else—it is a man-sized ■ job calling for a great deal of hard thinking. People make a big mistake in trying to reduce all life to the one level and interpret all things in terms or the class struggle; but when the problem is solved, when the undertaking is completed, and the economic tmths are found, there will be thrown open a tremendous field of research, in .,. w r ' licil religion in its best sense will hold its place. We shall be able to thmk in terms of values of life that are superior to values purelv economic.''