Show NEWS in BV d by western newspaper union washington people do not seem to understand the meaning ol of inflation which is being raised as a spectre behind the daily news ol of strikes wage debates and government economic planning no one in this country has seen an inflation walking or I 1 should say running adults with memories may recall it as something which happened in germany after the last war when a bushel basket of money was necessary to buy a meal but in 1 general the news debate treats it as an infinite kind of prospect without dimensions a sort of economic hell they know can happen yet they cannot picture it the kind of inflation talked about now should be easy to understand der stand thoroughly we have gone far enough toward it to make the landmarks visible it is unlike any which has gone before in history because primarily it is a price inflation in germany the wreckage of the tha money system and the bankruptcy of the country brought the condition in which a glass of beer cost marks or so in other countries such as china a depleted treasury already has brought comparative inflation fla tion we are not bankrupt and our treasury took in 45 billion dollars last year ours is an inflation of prices directly we have a shortage of goods all goods due to war wastes increased consumption and free distribution of our supplies around the world the cost of many things already has doubled since before the war WILL REFUSE TO BUY now the unions want a 30 per cent wage increase in this time of a goods shortage however much they get of their demand prices will be increased at least that much and probably more my experience as a consumer in this brave new economic world has convinced me that all that is needed to increase prices is an excuse if a man can sell his goods for an ever increasing price he will do it if he controls a sellers market such as we have now where people pay anything asked he would be superhuman if he did not resist both the loose government regulations and conscience if any but the course of upward wage jumps and upward price jumps will run as soon as the shortage of goods is over into buyer resentment the wage price inflationary spiral inevitably evit ably must encounter the day when people will not buy indeed there necessarily must be a day when they cannot pay the price it if they would because the wages of no other class have increased as have the wages of union labor we are getting to the point where we can see the people will close their pocketbooks and strike or will have to strike in the economic sensed sense purchasing only that whir which ch is necessary then the house will fall down the spiral will collapse with a thud declining demand will cause declining production unemployment employment depression from then on the depression can go many ways the government cannot collect even 35 billion dollars or a fraction of it from a country in the throes of depression declining business brings declining tax receipts the government can hardly borrow on top of a billion dollar war debt for deficit financing to promote another gigantic spending program to save the situation it would probably start the printing presses and bring to its final logical conclusion the bankruptcy of the nation because bec ause this is the only thing it could coul d do in this process everyone who has anything of value from a bank account to a bond would lose it or suffer a terrific le depreciation of anything he was able to hold bold through the crisis but those who have nothing of value would suffer more severe severely lyp for or it is reasonable to expect the starvation here that every other nation in similar circumstances has encountered then would come dictatorial socialism cial rial ism it would have to be a dictatorship ship because the world knows no other way to handle people who win will not behave of their own accord it would have to be socialism because this is the common political method today of handling nations in bankruptcy |