The faults of such a system are: (1) Lack of redemption as a decisive check on inflation. (2) The consequent temptation to inflate by issuing the certificates for general expenses. (3) The inconvenience and helplessness of the Government as to the amount of the public work it would thus give out. Sometimes workers would apply in large numbers and the Government would have to give them work, even if it did not really need them. At other times workers would apply in small numbers or not at all, because attracted, for the time, by private employers and the Government could not secure their services as it could not, without spoiling the currency, bid above its fixed price. Public works would thus be entirely subordinated to the maintenance of the currency. (4) The lack of definiteness of "a day's work of common labor" and the lack of its fluidity.
The question of the relative virtues of the labor standard and the commodity standard is discussed in my Purchasing Power of Money, Chapter X, § 4.
5. Govermnental Control of Gold Production
Mr. B. M. Anderson, Jr., suggests international Governmental control of gold mining, or a variable tax on gold mining. The former has already been mentioned.[1] The latter would be unjust to gold miners and, for that reason alone, impracticable. The plan proposed in this book must not be confused with such a plan. It is not a plan to control the output of gold. As shown in Appendix II, § 4, the gold miner would not be adversely affected but would share in the general advantage and prosperity which the plan would bring.
6. The Tabular Standard
As is shown under "anticipations" in Appendix VI, § 3, D, the idea of a tabular standard is a very old one,
- ↑ See Appendix I, § 1, L.
