Economic Science and World Problems
Noah D. Alper
[A condensed version of a paper delivered at the 5th
Conference on Balanced Living, held at Washington University, St.
Louis, Missouri. August, 19--]
WE ARE living in what is termed a "science age". Science
has greatly stimulated our ability to produce, but the increased
ability to produce housing, for example, has neither provided
sufficient housing for all income levels nor eliminated slums. Nor has
it alleviated the basic poverty symptoms of our country. It certainly
has not eliminated the basic and original injustice in the
distribution of wealth, a fact which has fathered an amazing galaxy of
plans designed to do so.
The method of inquiry, now known as the "Scientific Method"
first developed by Francis Bacon in 1620 in his Novum Organum,
is one of the great reasons for the break-through of science to new
levels of achievement. This method consists of getting, classifying
and testing facts and experimenting in their use, from the most minute
fragment of truth involved in the make-up of the atom, to bodies of
the most massive physical proportions even the secrets of the universe
itself.
The "scientific method" teaches that there exists in
nature, with all its factors, elements and principles, endless
cause-and-effect patterns affecting every phase of man's life -- moral
as well as physical. From an understanding of these cause-and-effect
patterns we develop the power of predictability -- of determining how
we can cause a desired result. As engineers have used this power to
produce such amazing results in their special fields, so, by seeking
like patterns, can we learn the conditions whose inevitable end "product"
is peace, not war, freedom and dignity of the individual, not state
enslavement, and a state of welfare, not a welfare state.
The very development of transportation, communication, modern
housing, and all we have, has been has been made up of observing,
testing, experimenting -- always seeking the better way; always being
discriminating and selective as to parts and phases of the instrument
-- never being totally revolutionary. New forms emerge from the old,
seldom replacing the old entirely. Even today's auto could not have
been built a year ago.
People may disagree on what constitutes ideal gardening, but they
generally agree on what are weeds and what are desirable garden
products -- plants, fruits, flowers, etc. We seek to improve the
various phases of gardening and farming by scientific-evolutionary
means -- not by revolutionary ideological conflicts. We study and
improve the ways of cultivating -- better ploughs and bigger
plough-ratios. We improve methods of harvesting and storing the
product. We eradicate the /weeds and even place them to good work as
compost.
The "scientific method", with its insistent demand for
discrimination between parts of a whole and things that are different,
always works. There are no "ideological" issues, no kind of
class struggle. Truth alone is wanted. The "causes of many
symptoms are sought and the corrective effort is directed at the
causes, not the symptoms themselves. Application of the "scientific
method" to the problem of malaria has led to its elimination in
many parts of the world. We have learned to prevent the breeding of
flies, rats, mosquitos, etc., and we have prevented many of the ills
these pests can cause. In cities we are learning smoke and smoke
prevention; we have done much to assure fire prevention and the like.
Scientific research has been a great boon to the art of prevention.
With all the evidence that prevention is worth endless amounts of
costly cures; with all the proven results of the use of the scientific
method in so many areas of man's human experiences, why is this method
not used in any truly basic way in the area of most desperate need of
man -- in the social area? In this area the dominating trends are
based on human animosities -- vested rights, economic privilege, "class
struggle" attitudes and political power domination. These involve
such issues as labour vs. capital and management, big little business,
cheap vs. dear money or inflation vs. deflation, governmental vs. free
market price controls, home markets for home industry vs. free trade,
private vs. governmental practice and control of medicine, regulated,
vs. free market determined wages, voluntary agreements and actions
between nations vs. super-government force, and war vs. peace. In
these areas the "ideological" attitudes of people,
regimented into political pressure operational groups, are locked in
constant and often vicious struggle.
There is much use of the "scientific method" of inquiry in
seeking to benefit those who show obvious symptoms of ill-health or of
poverty, exploitation and other phases of social problems. This
research lacks depth. However scientific it may be it cannot reveal
the basic causes of the symptoms investigated. To those engaged on it
prevention means nothing. They simply want more funds to relieve more
symptoms -- and this compounds our problems. Today our basic system of
economy is under attack from many groups who wish direct relief for
individuals and aid for many distressed groups, or to wreck the
system. These attempts are based on the assumption that these
conditions represent an uncorrectable fault of the freedom-way system
of economy. Thus the attack is on the system itself, and not on the
cause of the specific evil results they cite as proof of the failure
of the system. How scientific are laws directed at one or two specific
problem-symptoms? How scientific could these methods of analysing
local, national or world problems become?
We live in a cause-and-effect world. This is as true in the social
field as in any other. There are causes for slums, endless
labour-capital strife, constant conflicts between nations and even
war. Man and his universe were created for plenty for all willing and
able to work. Under conditions of natural economic justice, very few
would be unable to take care of themselves. The people of each
community, through church and welfare groups, and using moral and
efficient "social service" practices, could easily care for
the needs of those who cannot care for themselves -- and they would.
Not only would the number in need be reduced, but the ability to care
for them more generously would be increased. It would not be a problem
of government. The proper function of government is to protect life
and honest property, to curb special privilege and monopoly and to
assure equal rights to all and special privileges to none. By our own
ignorance, we have made the poverty and insecurity problems of our
people so massive that even Government cannot cope with them.
Local, national and world problems, especially those involved in
people taking care of themselves, are seriously and universally
related. The same principles of economic science hold the key to their
solution. That requires truth in economic education. Because this has
been lacking, the belief has gained "round that Socialism or
Communism may be the solution. The art of prevention of the problems
applies.
Economic science is the material science most basic to all social
studies. It tells us what to do, or not to do, to secure specific
types of good or bad economic results. The failure to present it as it
can and must be presented, has caused mass failures in all social
studies from sociology to history. Economic science is the one science
that has as its particular core the word "wealth" -- its
nature, its production, its distribution. It is the one science that
can give guidance on the use of natural principles that can lead to
economic justice which is the foundation element for achieving social
justice.
We can use economic science principles to make land -- the source of
all job opportunities and production -- low priced instead of high
priced as we do now. We can use them to make products and
services, which only exist because of human effort, and provision of
Capital, low priced Instead of high priced as we do now. Any
thinking person will see in this arrangement the opening up of
job-opportunities and an increase in the competitive demand for labour
by would-be employers. Under such conditions wages would naturally
tend to a maximum and monopolistic exploitation of people, as
consumers, could be less possible either by organised business or
labour groups.
Further, economic science can help people to see the true nature and
function of competition; how it tends to increase both quantity and
quality of goods and services at lower prices. It can help people to
see why we must find ways to prevent, or control or eliminate,
monopoly of any kind; how competition instead of being an evil as so
many foolishly maintain is, in truth, a method of selecting the most
efficient productive unit or situation; and the most efficient
co-operation between units and nations. Competition is good -- a
method of serving mankind, and not an enemy to free and wonderful
co-operative association.
Economic science reveals the natural factors of production as Land,
Labour and Capital and the natural avenues of distribution as
RENT-of-land, Wages and Interest -- a form of reward for human effort
in Capital creation. Simple observation and deduction reveals that
these shares of distribution are also the basic sources of public
revenue. The distinction is seen between law-made taxes, and the
natural and simple sources from which these taxes draw income to
government.
A tax is no more a source of public revenue than a pump is the source
of the water it pumps. No single truth of economic science is more
important than this. If properly used, this fact is sufficient to
greatly change the moral tone of the manner in which governments draw
income from people by taxation, and of its servants who man the tax
pumps. This one fact, if applied, can greatly increase the productive
power of existing Labour and Capital.
Economic science reveals the greater abundance of good results that
will follow from recognition of the scientific difference between
products and services made possible by Labour and Capital owners, and
our free gift, Land. It helps us see clearly that the publicly-earned
RENT-of-land can be separated from other income as surely as cream can
be separated from milk by physical processes; and this RENT-of-land
can be used for public purposes with great benefit to all productive
Labour and Capital owners.
As we observe the generally recognised symptoms of economic and
social evils today, and their attempted treatment by pressure
politics, it is clear that the spirit of truly foundational scientific
methods has not yet infiltrated into the minds of those who propose
today's best known social and economic reforms. We see the
Conservatives engaged in trying to "conserve" our evil and
special-privilege "deals" along with the good in the system,
and we see the Progressives and Liberals destroying the good in the
system without making any effort to eradicate the fundamental cause
which underlies these evils.
More and more we can ask just what did the Conservatives really
conserve when they had political power for so long? What errors did
they correct? Did they produce a State of Welfare sufficiently good to
prevent what happened to our country after the fatal economic collapse
of 1929? Did they prevent the taking of power by the Liberals and
Progressives of both parties which gave us the 30 years of New, Fair
and Middle-of-the-road Deals that followed from 1932 to the present?
On the other hand, what has happened since the shift of power to the
Liberals and Progressives? Have they exposed a single basic wrong in
the operation of our system? Have they ended a single basic evil? In
spite of billions for relief and charity, no one can say they have.
The most that can be said is that they sought, by planning, to give
Social Security, more unemployment compensation, more health and
welfare measures, more public aid to education, more old age benefits.
Given a true scientific economic understanding, and working from the
present background and general viewpoints of both the Conservatives
and the Liberal and Progressive thinkers, the leaders of both these
groups would ultimately achieve, not the destruction of the system
itself, but a far greater working perfection of the Free Enterprise
Economy. And this increased perfection would give the people of the
world just what they most need, a truly amazing example of a
Freedom-way Economy mat would then attract the people of the world;
for it would give all people, not the prison-like security of the
Marxist or Welfare State system, but a finer, individually provided
security and freedom too. Such a system can be made so overwhelmingly
good compared to what any "planned economy" under political
domination of the State could give, that Communism would be buried by
the competition -- and in peace.
|