Economics of the State

Abstract

A PAMPHLET, “The New Social Order: its Mechanism”, by a group of scientific workers, which is edited by A. H. Mackmurdo, emphasizes the importance of the economic position and advocates the elaboration of an economic unit to organize distribution of resources upon an equitable scale (London: The C. W. Daniel Co. 6d.). In each State, the national economy would be based on a fixed price for the staple foodstuff, this fixing the price of all home-grown foods and, in turn, the price of all national goods and services, and each living wage would be measured uponthis price-scale. The social mechanism to remove the paradox of potential plenty and actual poverty is regarded as involving three changes: a radical change in the mechanism of a commonwealth distribution; an instrument for measuring the distribution of the portions of this common wealth to be distributed to the members of the community as co-partners of it; and a regulative organ to control and guide the highly specialized organs of production, regulate the machinery of distribution and control all national imports and exports. The first change involves a new wage system and the disappearance of public or private ownership in the fruit of the common effort. The second involves the establishment of a new form of national money, and in the third, growth of the social service conception is essential, leading to the development of occupational organizations, which will regulate the economic affairs of the industry or occupation in the interest of the whole community.