Since complete predictability is obviously out of the question, the determination of the need for public work is rather a matter of defining the range of sizes and types of public work programs that may be called for. It must be accepted by the economist that large-scale migration cannot be relied upon heavily to achieve the desired equalization of incomes. Numerous bills to extend and strengthen our provisions for social security are pending in Congress, but none of them have been even accorded a hearing, exccpt the Downy bill for a flat pension of $30 per month to every body over sixty-6ve (a modified Townsend plan), which was favor ably reported by a special committee but which the Senate refused to swallow. Consumer products direct prestige wwc solutions scam. The assumption that the economy will not be geared irreparably to an increasing rate of consumption seems reasonably safe. To be sure, the nature of the relationships will probably be altered perma nently by the war. THE POSSIBLE ECONOMIC CONTENT OF REGIONAL FEDERATIONS In detail, there is an infinite variety of possible contents for an economic federation of countries. There is, on the one hand, the totalitarian system in which economic and other policies are simply imposed from above by overwhelming power and authority.
The strong kinship of gold purchases and an international stabilization fund with the three proposals for righting world trade discussed above does not mean that these devices must inevitably be discarded because the unorthodox proposals were found to fall short of their objectives. It is difBcult to generalize in advance about these, but if the investment is to a large extent in industries likely to displace imports, then the international beneBts accruing from the immediate e? Effects on motivation and accumulation would then be serious. This means that investment tends continually to fall short of the amount the com munity tries to save out of its income (which is continually falling in money terms but also continually tending to regain its former level in real terms). It may well prove to be the case that some of the practices worked out and applied in the last 10 years have not stood the test of wartime production. Clearly, there is a sizable job of education to be done in both the urban and the rural communities. Fashion Marketing - Student Notes - Marketing Concepts -Student Notes Accompanies: Marketing Concepts 1 Directions: Fill in the blanks. The Marketing | Course Hero. They are interpreted by many to mean that private industry at the end of the last war was able by itself to solve the problem of demobilization and postwar transition. Private wealth is under a moral ban. The movement of the terms of trade against primary products can be MONETARY STABILIZATION 395 halted by improving still further productive efficiency in agriculture and raw materials, at the same time that domestic industrial opportunities are realized as fully as possible* The world short age of dollars can be met by the spread of American, British, German, Swedish, and other modern production techniques through out the world, together with sufficient capital to put them into operation. F I S C A L P O L I C Y A T T H E S T A T E LEVELS 231 cannot hope to retain power, under modern conditions, unless they can successfully deal with the problems of economic instability and individual insecurity. This proposal has recently been endorsed by the National Association of Manufacturers, but it is not clear whether this organization favors legislation on the subject or merely volun tary action on the part of the employers. A forthcoming publication of the Postwar Division of the Bureau of Labor Statistics will present the first large-scale attempt to describe the structure of the national economy in terms of a single input-output table.
But it would have to be a very severe depreciation, which would hardly be welcome in either country. " LocaZ In the case of localities, a better balance of burdens and resources can be achieved through local government reorganization. The outcome of the war and the international arrangements for the armistice period may be such that every ton of food that this country and the allied exporting countries of the New World can turn out will be needed to feed the hungry populations of the lands devasted by the war and to continue the levels of feeding that have been developed in the United States, Great Britain, and elsewhere as a contribution to the vigor of the war effort. The author desires to emphasize that the opinions expressed or implied here are purely personal. The latter magnitude exceeds the former by the amount of indirect business taxation. The transition back to a peacetime economy, however, will be easier than the transition to a war economy has been, since meanwhile we have built up a larger capacity of our machine tools and dies industries, and businessmen will be better prepared for reconversion than they were for conversion. TYPES OF POSTWAR PRICE CONTROL The postwar situation may be viewed from either an immediate or a long-run point of view. The first is the relationship between national income and the additional costs of the public debt; the second is the relation ship between national income and the income of the government. Of these it is quite likely that major attention will again be given to old-age security. Price controls should be retained at the same time that sup port is given by public work spending, since there will exist simul taneously a danger of inflation and of deflation. Prestige consumer healthcare brands. 226 P O S T W A R E C O N O M I C P R O B L E MS Of even greater importance from the viewpoint of Rscal policy is the fact that through deScit spending a state or locality can affect the level of income within its area only to a limited extent. At such time, moreover, the allocation of public expenditures for investment rather than consumption purposes may also be appropriate. It is natural to expect that those, or at least those nations, who furnish the capital will also furnish the technical and managerial skill required to make it effective.
For war products must be produced hur riedly and in the face of bottlenecks, with shortages of strategic metals and with equipment not completely adapted to the changed character of produc tion. It would be quite irresponsible to cut expenditures, increase taxes, and reduce the public debt in a period when the effect of such a policy would be to cause a drastic fall in the national income. The problem of demobilization after the war, of course, will involve much more than merely the return of the service men to civilian life. The potential victim thinks that he is better off under a lending than under a tax pro gram. Here again, accurate analysis of the impact of the program that will finally be put into operation requires knowledge of this interdependence. We want an orderly program of demobiliza tion and reconstruction. In this country, the great spurt did not come until the thirties, when want and dependency became the lot of many millions of American families. Unfavorable cost-price relationships retard the repayment of debts and the improvement of the cash position of business enterprises. The difEculty is, however, that while may be completed before the end of the transition period, maintenance and operation costs will * The percentage distribution by type of the 6rst 18, 000 projects submitted to the Public Work Reserve was as follows: Selected project types as percentage of all projects Type of project Construction cost as No. The customary relation is not to be found in 1941 and 1942 when restrictions on Rows of consumers' goods and patriotically induced subscriptions to war bonds stimulated savings. COM M ODITY AGREEMENTS 317 attempts to buttress costly and vulnerable national commodity "controls. " These brief summaries fail to do justice to the speciRc plans put forward but may indicate their broad outlines.
There has certainly been an overemphasis on matters of organizational detail among internationally minded people. Com petitive conditions in the metal trades after the war are likely to promote the use of production committees in those industries. DEBT POTENTIAL Having discussed briefly the effects of the process 0 1 accumula tion of debt, we return to specific estimates of debt potential. COMMODITY AGREEMENTS 313 the duration of peace, moderating tendencies toward widespread and violent economic fluctuations, enlarging the volume of Internationa! From mid-1919 to the end of 1920 American industry spent unprecedentedly large sums upon gross plant and equipment. It took time for people to appreciate the real importance of understanding the close relationship between diet and health.
The need of all countries for adequate monetary reserves may be readily handled if steps are taken to assure that these reserves will not be quickly dissipated by capital Right or through uneconomic imports. Quite apart from the political considerations that are bound to complicate the problem still further, international trade in commodities and services will have to be cut off from its old background of commercial calculation and have to be managed by political treaties, bilateral and multilateral. From the long-run standpoint, a persistently pursued policy to maintain full employment raises interesting questions with respect to the effect of such a policy on (1) the distribution of income and (2) the proportion of a full-employment income which, it may be expected, would be expended on consumption. From a position of equilibrium in trade, an auton omous rise in national money income of an equal percentage in * The foreign demand for American primary products is, of course, subject to the influences of the long-term shift in the terms of trade, as well as to the economic forces in the United States, which have lately assumed political forms, tending to bring about equalization of incomes. 224 POSTWAR ECONOMIC PROBLEMS tutions and local charters require annual balancing of the budget, and thereby prohibit the accumulation of reserves. Not one of these many balances, only a few of which are mentioned above, can be considered in isolation. With limited funds, such a situation would require substitution of unprogramed projects for programed ones. When we look around for it, we are obliged to conclude that there is little or no hope of help from the state governments, for these are in a position scarcely more favorable than that of the cities and towns. Everywhere it is said, and constantly reiterated, that we must tighten our belts and pay oR our government debt when peace returns. In this case a reduction in taxes rather than an increase in expenditures might be indicated. Consumption forgone today is gone forever.
372 P O S T W A R E C O N O M I C P R O B L E MS There will be risks of loss even apart from the transfer problem. Antitrust law enforcement has for the most part been an extracurricular activity in government over the past half century. Meanwhile, public work activities of all kinds would be Btted into the larger program. These wartime developments forecast what is likely to be the future of social security. To encourage and possibly assist in expediting the advance preparation 187 188 POSTWAR ECONOMIC PROBLEMS There was even substantial agreement among sponsors and mem bers of the organization as to the nature of the economic situation for which plans were being made.
In particular, it may have reduced the demand for houses. It is a commonplace that capitalist society is, and for some time has been, in a state of decay. C I T Y R E P L A N N I N G A ND R E B U I L D I N G 211 2. The mechanism remains substantially the same, but we are acquiring a new attitude with respect to what may be expected from this mechanism. Free trade and free exchange require and permit that rather minimal government which is compatible with democracy and large-scale political organization at home. Western civilization is tough enough to survive both cur rent and postwar crises. Although the lender prefers to lend rather than to be taxed, actually he may be worse off under a lending than under a taxing program. Then the sugar price will fall.