radford@calgary.UUCP (Radford Neal) (11/04/85)
> >The Social Credit they advocate consists largely of the government > >minting money and giving it to citizens, instead of taxing anyone. > >Sort of a trickle-up scheme. Please correct me if I've misunderstood. > > I *think* that that is basically what Social Credit is about. Social Credit is a ideology / economic theory developed by a certain Major Douglas in the early part of this century, and popularized during the Depression, especially in Alberta. The theory as I understand it is that the economy has a continually increasing need for a medium of exchange, which, if not satisfied, leads to a depression. Social credit advocates printing of new money to satisfy this need and its distribution to the populace (and also maybe using it to finance the government, I think). They don't like the present system of allowing the private banking system and central bank to create money. The theory is widely ridiculed in Canada as a "funny money" idea. The idea is indeed flawed, in my opinion, but has more economic truth in it than the views propagated for public consumption by the ridiculers. The theory has not been tried in practice since the 30's. Its last advocates in Canada were the federal Social Credit Party, which disintegrated in the 70's. The BC Social Credit party is related to the original ideology in name only. I think I've heard of a Social Credit party in Australia or New Zealand, but I know nothing of them. Radford Neal
js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) (11/05/85)
> Social Credit is a ideology / economic theory developed by a certain > Major Douglas in the early part of this century, and popularized during > the Depression, especially in Alberta. > > The theory as I understand it is that the economy has a continually > increasing need for a medium of exchange, which, if not satisfied, leads > to a depression. Social credit advocates printing of new money to satisfy > this need and its distribution to the populace (and also maybe using it > to finance the government, I think). Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that the federal government *does* print lots of money every year and *does* use it to help finance the government. > They don't like the present system of > allowing the private banking system and central bank to create money. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really don't believe that our present system allows private banks to create money. (If I am wrong, could you explain to me just what I have to do to open up my own bank and start printing my own?) > > The theory is widely ridiculed in Canada as a "funny money" idea. The idea > is indeed flawed, in my opinion, but has more economic truth in it than the > views propagated for public consumption by the ridiculers. > > The theory has not been tried in practice since the 30's. Its last advocates > in Canada were the federal Social Credit Party, which disintegrated in the > 70's. The BC Social Credit party is related to the original ideology in > name only. > The Canadian government hasn't printed any new money since the '30's? I'm amazed that the canadian dollar doesn't cost a lot more US dollars than it does, since the US government *has* been printing money right along. -- Jeff Sonntag ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j "What would Captain Kirk say?"
myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster) (11/07/85)
> > >The Social Credit they advocate consists largely of the government > > >minting money and giving it to citizens, instead of taxing anyone. > > >Sort of a trickle-up scheme. Please correct me if I've misunderstood. > > > > I *think* that that is basically what Social Credit is about. > > Social Credit is a ideology / economic theory developed by a certain > Major Douglas in the early part of this century, and popularized during > the Depression, especially in Alberta. > > The theory as I understand it is that the economy has a continually > increasing need for a medium of exchange, which, if not satisfied, leads > to a depression. Social credit advocates printing of new money to satisfy > this need and its distribution to the populace (and also maybe using it > to finance the government, I think). They don't like the present system of > allowing the private banking system and central bank to create money. > Anyone interested in this topic might want to research the socialist government of the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the depression. A Milwaukean that I know once related a story to me about a meeting he had with the mayor of that time, who talked alot about their experience with ``Milwaukee Money'', which after a stormy beginning grew to become acceptable currency anywhere in the city. Sorry I don't have more info. jeff m
radford@calgary.UUCP (Radford Neal) (11/09/85)
> > The theory as I understand it is that the economy has a continually > > increasing need for a medium of exchange, which, if not satisfied, leads > > to a depression. Social credit advocates printing of new money to satisfy > > this need and its distribution to the populace (and also maybe using it > > to finance the government, I think). > > Pardon my ignorance, but I was under the impression that the federal > government *does* print lots of money every year and *does* use it to > help finance the government. You are quite right of course. The government (central bank) does "print" money at times to finance the deficit. This is called "monitized debt" and isn't really debt at all, since it is payed for by the citizens of the time via inflation. The difference from Social Credit ideology is that they don't admit it (very loudly at least). Also, Social Credit thinks money should be printed even if not needed by the government, and distributed amongst the populace. > > They don't like the present system of > > allowing the private banking system and central bank to create money. > > Maybe I'm wrong, but I really don't believe that our present system > allows private banks to create money. (If I am wrong, could you explain > to me just what I have to do to open up my own bank and start printing > my own?) Private banks do create money, through the mechanisms of "fractional reserve banking". This is the major way money is created today, the other being direct creation by the central bank to finance deficits (see above) or for other reasons (e.g. bailing out failing banks). To start your own bank and create some money you need only convince people that a cheque drawn on your bank is as good as cash, even though you don't have the cash to honour all the cheques that might be written. Radford Neal