INDIVIDUAL ECONOMY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 229, 22 June 1921, Page 2

INDIVIDUAL ECONOMY

Sir, —I was pleased to note that in a recent Issue you devoted a leading article to the subject of "Economy,” and to the lesson to be learnt by the rigorous curtailment b* expenditure nowfound necessary by the British Government. Anyone who has been in England in the last three years will have remarked on the extraordinary extravagance displayed by all classes of the community, and from this we may learn an even more important lesson, when we consider how much better able to withstand the present industrial crisis and high taxation Britain would have been if frugality instead of lavish expenditure had bVin predominant. The amount that can be saved by retrenchment in Uorernmaut Departments .is negligible, when compared with the sums that could be saved by economy practised by individuals; and whereas with the restriction of Government expenditure some undertaking for the public welfare generally suffers. The Imgo sums spent annually by the public on luxuries and frivolous amusements arc not. only not conducive to the public welfare, but even detrimental to it. . The fallaoial theories are still prevalent that a man is responsible only to himself for his expenditure, and that in spending a large portion of.his income on luxuries he is rather benefiting his fellows by causing employment, than harming them. But money spent on luxuries is maintaining the high cost of living, for money is urgently needed by tho essential industries; nnd cheaper money in them would be directly instrumental to reducing the cost of living. Nor would money spent on;luxuries provide more ''employment, than the same amount, invested in industries producing the necessaries of lite. , It is the duty of each one of us to hare according to his means. Surely the time is ripo for the Press and other inifuential organisations to initiate a rigorous economy campaign against individual extravagance, and to induce the Government to impose heavier taxation on the unnecessary luxuries on which snch a large proportion of the nation's income is squandered. 1 am. etc.. FOREWARNED.