Direct Credits for Everybody
By Alfred Lawson

CHAPTER 12

Direct Credits for Everybody

As it requires everybody's work to create wealth, and as everybody is expected to give their best efforts toward wealth production, and as everybody cannot do this unless the economic system is well balanced and everybody kept in a state of efficiency, and as everybody cannot be kept efficient unless well nourished and of good physical, mental and moral aptitude, everybody must be afforded opportunities that will make possible their best effort in producing wealth for the use of everybody.

Mankind will never reach a higher grade unless everybody's efficiency is developed to a higher standard, and this can only be accomplished through the right of everybody to enjoy equal opportunities.

Individuals are not equal in power and ability, but that is no reason why equal opportunities should be denied any of them to do their best work so that the results can be enjoyed by everybody to the fullest extent.

In order to give equal opportunities, and increase the efficiency of everybody, a system must be established whereby all people will be permitted to do their best, at all times, in general production.

This does not mean that the strong must be weakened and slowed down to the pace set by those with the least power, ability or desire to work. It means that everybody will be afforded equal opportunities to go ahead as fast as their power, ability and desire will permit, as long as no unfair advantage is taken of the slower going ones. In fact, the desire to work and excel will be encouraged and not discouraged in everybody.

So everybody's plan is fundamentally for the benefit of everybody, strong and weak alike.

As the intelligence of everybody increases, greater labor-saving machines will be invented, constructed and utilized for the purpose of producing wealth on such a vast scale, that in time, there will be enough of everything for everybody, and by the aid of these machines drudgery will be done away with for everybody.

The more labor-saving machines invented, and put to work, the less dirty work everybody will have to perform, and the more productive machines, the more wealth can be distributed to everybody.

When man, through great generating machines, can handle power as economically as he now handles water, which is possible, then machines will produce, distribute and furnish everybody substantial nourishment in different forms as cheaply as water is now supplied.

So those who would retard the inventive genius of man, or restrict the construction and utilization of labor-saving machinery, or the organization of large corporations that make possible the production of the most wealth with the least expenditure of man-power, know nothing of the underlying cause and effect of either natural or human economics.

The more wealth produced, the more wealth there is for everybody, providing it is honestly distributed. Cheats, thieves and gluttons, however, should not be allowed to supervise everybody's wealth, nor must they be permitted to make the laws that govern wealth production and distribution.

According to the Direct Credits plan, those who do more toward production of wealth, will not only enjoy better living conditions as a reward for their more worthy efforts, but will also receive higher honors and more responsible positions of trust. They will not be rewarded for what they have, but for what they have done.

To brag about the wealth one possesses, during the new order of things, will be about as silly as to brag about how much air or water one owns. But to brag about the quality and general usefulness of the things one helps to produce for everybody, will be considered a sign of intelligence.

Mass man-power, feeding labor-saving machines, is the most effective way to produce wealth at the present time. A thousand men working together with modern machinery can make more useful things for everybody in a week, than a million men can make in a month working separately without machinery.

How foolish it would be to use a million man-power to accomplish what a thousand man-power can do in less time and with less effort. If contrary arguments were followed to their logical conclusion, then everybody would have to back down to the level of the cave man and his way of living.

But if the co-operation of a thousand men with machinery produces more wealth than a million men can produce without co-operation and machinery, that proves that it is co-operation that increases the amount of wealth produced and everybody therefore is entitled to the full social benefits of it.

If private ownership of manufacturing plants, large tracts of land, and huge apartment buildings, made valuable by the co-operation of everybody, is to continue as a form of capitalism, then everybody must be given equal chances to become joint owners thereof and share in such profits as new made laws will allow therefrom.

Modern production is made possible, to a large extent, through a system of credit, which at present is governed by those who control the supply of money. But now, credit is only given to those who will (1) pay interest for it, and (2) who have wealth to pledge as security.

Strangely, at present, everybody who produces all wealth, has little or no wealth to put up as security, and therefore is entitled to little or no credit. What little credit is given to the great disfranchised majority who have little wealth, is at a higher rate of interest than that given to the small minority who have much wealth. But with the abolition of the interest system the bad effects from that angle will be wiped out.

With enough money in circulation to meet all trade requirements, everybody will not have to borrow money for ordinary purposes and pay a price for the use of it, as now.

But corporations will want newer and larger wealth producing plants with ever improving machinery that will require huge money supplies to operate. Individuals will also want money to buy land and buildings for their private homes.

Therefore both the corporation and the individual will need credit, and, as it will be unlawful for privateers to charge interest on money loans, they will be forced out of business altogether. That will make necessary getting credit elsewhere to do the bigger things.

So, according to the Direct Credits plan, the government will control all credits, be they large or small.

Everybody's government will encourage large wealth producing corporations that will manufacture useful things economically, but will discourage large individual ownership of the securities of any concern. It will prohibit individuals, families or cliques from gaining control of any large corporation. Individuals will be encouraged to invest in the securities of all useful corporations.

Particularly, will new corporations with advanced ideas and improved inventions be encouraged to get under way, for they are the base from which progressive and prosperous concerns grow, coming as they do from the new blood and mental foresight of rising generations.

Rules will be made affording everybody equal rights for obtaining credit from the government. The same opportunities will be offered those who want to invest in wealth-producing enterprises, but have no money or security, as to those who have, otherwise those with great wealth could gain control of the machines made by everybody and then stop everybody from using them, as is the case these days. That is one of the worst causes of business stagnation.

So every individual over 21 years of age will be allowed a certain amount of credit, without security, for investment purposes. When the amount is drawn no more will be given until the earlier obligations have been met.

If an individual uses poor judgment in making investments, that will be his fault and work to his disadvantage, but he will not be squeezed out of all of his wealth for the loss of a small portion of it, as is the fiendish practice nowadays among the interest-collecting money owners.

In these wretched days a poor widow with a $1,000 mortgage on a $5,000 home, loses everything because she cannot pay the interest. Or a manufacturer loses a $50,000 investment in a plant because he cannot pay interest charges on loans for money borrowed to pay workmen wages for labor put into products not yet sold.

With Direct Credits for Everybody an inventor, or promoter, having something that will increase wealth production, but no money to manufacture or market it, can bring together any number of individuals willing to invest in the project, form a corporation, and the government will loan to it the full amount of money the whole number of individuals are entitled to separately. Then after the corporation is established and paying dividends each individual will pay back to the government the amount borrowed for the investment.

In case the investment is not remunerative and the individual cannot pay back his borrowings, the government will give unlimited time to do so, or, sooner or later, if necessary charge it off to experience gained.

(The borrower, of course, will be given no further credit if he does not pay back the full amount that he borrowed.)

Although in some cases the government will lose on an individual's bad investment, it will be easy to make up for it through heavier payments by those who are more fortunate and make large incomes from their better investments. It will also prove to be a good education for everybody in the knowledge of practical finance and bring to the front those who are best qualified to manage everybody's great wealth producing enterprises.

If the individual prefers to purchase a home instead of investing his credits in corporations, he can get the money from the government for that purpose without interest or security and pay it back in small installments.

All any individual will have to do, to obtain these credits without security, is to show that it is for a good purpose, such as education, home buying, operating a small business, or investment in useful corporations.

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