WIIERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Srn,—I read in the Spectator recently a letter from a corre- spondent who had noticed the free spending of money which goes on all around us and who asked where the money came from ? He was naturally puzzled as he had found that his own friends were all hard hit and had no money to spend except on necessaries. I think I can offer you a partial solution. In most industries an entirely uneconomic wage is being paid. The manual workers who are in employment have rather more money to spare than ever before. Their wages soared up, as we all know, during the war, and it has been impossible to bring them down again to an economic level. Most employers dare not try to bring them down ; and I think it fair to say that a good many employers are also actuated by the feeling that they want their men to have high wages and that they hope a great trade revival will before long soon put a more economic aspect on the whole situation.
But meanwhile the wage-earners are spending freely and the shopkeepers are reaping the benefit. I should very much like to see a return of the number of shopkeepers who have bought motor cars in the past two years. I think it would be illuminating. Some of these purchasers pay for their ears in notes and not by cheque. This suggests a very loose kind of account keeping which must be the despair of the Income Tax collector. The accumulated wealth of this country was great or we could not have financed the War as we did, but that accumulated wealth is now being steadily dissipated in the manner I have described. How long will it last ? A levy on capital is actually going on all the time. The wealth will not last indefinitely. Let ,us hope that recovery will come before it is too late.—I am, Sir, etc., .
MANUFACTURER.
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