Education by Wireless

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 45, 24 May 1929, Page 12

Education by Wireless

Economics for Listeners-in

HE W.BH.A. series, broaacast from Station 4YA, on "Why "ncomes are Unequal," will be continued on Tuesday, May 28, when the causes of ineyuality of income derived from work will be discussed. Most of us who receive incomes tn New Zealand do so as the result of the performance of certain pieces of work. We are. wage-earners of salaried officials, or working on our own account, receive an income which, though more variable than wages or salary, is equally a payment for the performance of labour. Probably in New Zealand, as elsewhere, the biggest incomes are those received by owners of property, and to them we shall turn our attention next week, but the inequalities of incomes derived from work are also obvious and demand an explanation. Unfortunately we have not yet got in New Zealand a complete statistical statement of the differences in individual incomes. The.results of the inquiry which was included in the last census (1926) have not yet been published in full; and the unfortunate confusion, or perhaps fear of the tax-collector, which led some people to return themselves as having no income, when in fact they were by no means dependent on the charity of others, will make it alittle difficult to interpret the results when they are published. We already know enough, however, both from statistical inquiry and from general observation. to be certain that very wide variations exist here among current wage and salary rates. In 1927 the average weekly earnings of male employees engaged in factory production was £4 9s. 6d., but the award rates for specific industries varied from 78s. for bakers’ labourers to 145s. for hotel chefs. It is difficult to get detailed information about other incomes, but no one doubts that the average Income of doctors and lawyers is much above that of even skilled artisans, while the incomes of the most fortunate or the most skilful professional men are certainly very large. The average income of employers again is certainly. substantially greater than that of their employees. Of 40,535 married male employers, at least 14,214 or 35 per cent. of the whole returned themselves at the last census as in re--eeipt of an income of £7 or more per week, while of 154,127 married wageearners (which here includes persons with salaries) the proportion was only 10 per cent., or 15767. Is Inequality Inevitable? (CRITICISMS of inequality are frequently met with the objection that it is futile and utopian to aim at absolute equality of incomes, because if such a condition were established, even for a moment, it would immediately be upset as a result of differences in skill, in industry and conscientiousness, in physical strength and intellectual alertness. To some extent this is no doubt true, but the criticism is misleading if it suggests that differences in incomes from work can be ex-

plained only or even mainly by reference to these qualities. An industrious carpenter usually earns more than a lazy one, a conscientious doctor more than his rival who shows himself careless of his patients’ interests.. But we are more interested in discovering why there are such differences. between the average earnings of various groups of workers than in explaining the differences which exist within the groups. Lawyers and Watersiders. \ Wey does the average waterside } _ worker earn so much less than the average lawyer? The simple, though: not perfectly complete answer is, because waterside workers are so much more plentiful than lawyers. If we wish to improve the economic position of waterside workers, in comparison with the economic position of lawyers, the best way to go about it is to increase the scarcity of waterside workers, ° \ How can this be done? ‘The only way is to: open up other channels of employment for men who are now waterside workers, or for men who, as things now are, would tend to move into that employment. This at once suggests one of the most important eauses of existing inequalities. It is unlikely that any very marked differences will be observed at any one time between the wages paid, say, to plumbers in different parts of New Zealand, for, if there were, plumbers would quite quickly move from that part of the country where their wages were low to the part where they were high. Why cannot we move in the same way from the watersiding industry where wages are low to the legal profession where earnings are high? The answer is again obvious, that the legal profession demands training and experience which the waterside worker does not possess. But why does this not merely postpone the transference? The man who is a waterside worker today may be unable to change his occupation, but why he should not his sons the training and education which will enable them to receive the higher incomes which are customary in the professions? The Importance of Care in the Selection of Parents. . Is very rare cases of course he does, | but such cases are so rare as to attract an altogether disproportionate share of public attention. Usually the expenses of training are so great that the chances of a poor man’s son training for work which is well paid are definitely less than those of a rich man’s son of the same standard of. inherent capacity. This is true even in New Zealand with its generous public provision for education. The number who surmount the barriers here is no doubt rather larger than in the Old World, but that does not prove that the barriers do not exist. Unequal distribution of income in one generation is itse..! an important cause of still more unequal distribution in the .next generation.