Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/192

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

means of committees and district councils, nationalization must surely mean that the nation puts money into an industry, and so Treasury control becomes inevitable, with all its consequences.

A state of society in which everybody worked and nobody was overpaid and nobody was underpaid, and everybody enjoyed a fair share of an overwhelming abundance of the good things of life has certainly enormous advantages to recommend it, if it can be attained, as compared with our present system. Nevertheless, even this is only to be secured, according to its advocates, by the introduction of a system which might carry with it very deadening drawbacks. Mr. Cole deals a deadly blow at State Socialism when he speaks of the "regimentation" involved by it, and describes it as a Prussianizing movement. In order to obtain the very great economy in production, which is certainly possible if a really efficient State administration took the business in hand, decided what was good for the community to consume, and then set the whole energies of the nation on to producing those particular articles, it would be necessary to lose the freedom of choice in production and consumption which our present system gives us, involving