SOCIAL FRUSTRATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 March 1940, Page 9

SOCIAL FRUSTRATION

PROBLEMS IN UNITED STATES. Unemployment continues at a disturbingly high level in the United States, a fact that lends acute interest to the report of the National Resources Committee appointed by President Roosevelt to study the problem. As people become increasingly aware of the discrepancy between rich resources and poor results in living, and as the ineffectiveness in the organisation of resources becomes more clear, a sense of social frustration must develop, says the report, and be reflected in justified social unrest and unavoidable friction. Individual frustration builds into social, frustration. And social frustration is quite as likely to work itself out in socially destructive as in socially constructive ways. The basic problem facing economic statesmanship today can be stated as follows: How can we get effective use of our resources, yet at the same time preserve the underlying values in our tradition of liberty and democracy? How can we emplo)' our unemployed, how can we use our plant and equipment to the full, how can we take advantage of the best modern technology, yet in all this make the individual the source of value and individual, fulfilment in society the basic objective'? How can we obtain effective organisation of resources, yet at the same time. retain the maximum freedom of individual action?