Abstract
IN an address before the Economic Reform Club, London, on June 30, entitled "The Economic Reforms Required for Lasting Prosperity and Peace“which has now been issued in pamphlet form (Economic Reform Club, 61 Great Cumberland Place, London, W.I. 9d.), Mr. A. G. McGregor stresses the supreme importance of reform in wages regulation in securing a steady purchasing power of the pound. He urges that the method of adjusting wages by industrial dispute should be abolished and replaced by direct government control to adjust wages in accordance with the price level. This would in the first instance involve raising wages and salaries to a level which would bring consuming power in step with productive power, and thereafter the wages board would maintain the proper relation between wages and price level. He stresses the point that bankers should be relieved of all responsibility over the general price level and outlines the functions of a rational banking policy designed to accommodate industry and commerce with the necessary funds but under rules which eliminate any monetary influence on the price level. He contends that if wages and salaries are controlled in the way indicated so as to secure a satisfactory equilibrium between consuming power and productive power, economic liberty is no more affected than individual freedom in general by the ordinary government responsibility for maintaining law and order, and also that the higher wages and internal consuming power would assist the export trade.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Economics of Wages and Price Levels. Nature 140, 354 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140354b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140354b0