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Major Douglas in The Monopoly of
Credit, Fourth Edition, 1979:
Chapter IX, "Dividends for All"
"In a physical sense then we should be living in a
world in which economic processes were carried out by two agencies, one, as
heretofore, the agency of individual effort and from an economic point of view
of decreasing importance, and the other, as the result of the plant,
organisation, and knowledge which are the cumulative result of the effort not
only of the present generation, but of the pioneers and inventors of the
past. This second agency can, of course, be collectively described as real
(as distinct from financial) capital....
"Production is far more dependent upon real capital
than it is upon labour, although without labour there is no production.
More and more the position of labour, using, of course, this word in its widest
possible sense, tends to become the catalyst in an operation impossible without
its presence, but carried on with a decreasing direct contribution from labour
itself...."
Appendix I, Argument, Section I
"..the ostensible objective of industry is the
production for use of goods and services to an extent rendered possible by the
progress of the industrial arts. The physical factors in the attainment of
this objective consist of what are commonly called raw materials, which may
reasonably defined as materials in the state in which they are found in nature,
the application to these raw materials of a process involving, in the broad
sense, tools, and thirdly, the expenditure of energy. The distinguishing
characteristic of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the rapid advance of
process together with the rendering available of large amout of energy, which
may be considered as derived for the sun.... for a given process the rate of
production is proporionate to the rate of the use of energy.... The
physical effect of these factors has therefore been to increase the rate of
production of a given article per human unit of labour."
Comment:
It has been observed that Douglas added to the
classic factors of production, i.e., "land, labour and capital," the concept of
the "Cultural Heritage." Real capital derives from the interaction of
labour and raw materials . The Cultural Heritage increases the efficiency
of the productive process, which involves the interaction between labour and
real capital. Typically and historically this effect has been
exponential.
Sincerely
Wally
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2006 12:26
PM
Subject: [socialcredit] capital
Keith objects to my including "raw
materials" as "capital." For one thing, I didn't say HOW raw.
Steel is a raw material, but it is not "just there." Ruskin's example is bulbs
and tulips. A bulb is a more natural form than steel, but I for one
would never dare say a bulb was "just there." I'm not sure where one can
draw a line, or really what is the need to draw a line.
"Economics is finally being applied to conserving nature as contrasted
to merely consuming and exploiting it." Social credit anticipated
environmentalism (Douglas complaining of polution and the destruction of
beautiful rural landscapes by mining and chemical industries). The only
difference is that Douglas regarded this as a higher form of EFFICIENCY, a
careful stewardship of the natural world given us by God. The
conservation of nature can always be referred back to ultimate benefit to
human beings of this or future generations.
Michael
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