Must Full Employment Cost Money?
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MUST FULL EMPLOYMENT COST MONEY? By ULRICH von BECKERATH, Berlin, 1882 - 1969 [Taken from Peace Plans #10, compiled by John Zube] (The page numbering is continued from PEACE PLANS No. 9 to facilitate the indexing offered in PEACE PLANS 11 for these three issues.) Must Full Employment Cost Money? The Financing of Public Works Without Recourse to the Money Market. According to Milhaud's Proposals; With Some Remarks on the Latter By Ulrich von Beckerath (Berlin) The following is a reprint, with permission, of the English edition titled: Does the Provision of Employment necessitate Money Expenditure published by Williams & Norgate, London, 1935, of the German original: "Muss Arbeitsbeschaffung Geld kosten? Die Finanzierung oeffentlicher Arbeiten ohne Beanspruchung des Geldmarktes nach den Vorschlaegen Milhaud's nebst einigen Bemerkungen ueber sein System." The German issue was published in volume 1, January/May 1935 of Annalen der Gemeinwirtschaft, Genf. The present address of this organization is: Annals of Public and Cooperative Economy, Liege, 45, quai de Rome Belgium. Reprint is free and desired by all parties concerned provided the source is fully mentioned. The English translation was made by G, Spiller, London, and has been slightly revised by the editor of this series. No objections would be raised against better translations. This Peace Plans issue is the second of a special issue of three, all dealing with the principles and practice of free banking or monetary freedom as a contribution to economic, social, political and international peace. The next issue will reprint the third and last lengthy contribution of Ulrich von Beckerath on the subject and was likewise written under a camouflage title, one designed not to arouse the suspicions of the authorities and yet to indicate the essence of his detailed monetary freedom proposals: "Public Insurance and Compensation Money the Possibilities of Developing Insurance Facilities in Asia in Colonies and New Countries through applying the Milhaud System; together with Same Reflections on this System. In spite of this inconspicuous title, it deals really with the principles of economic and especially currency policy, with monetary freedom vs. monetary despotism, demonstrating them by application to one particular example, which is of great importance to all newly independent countries trying to develop their natural resources. For technical reasons the numerous italics in the original could not be repeated in the original PEACE PLANS edition, duplicated from wax stencils, using just one typewriter, one with a very small typeface, to enable me to include this whole book in one PEACE PLANS ISSUE. Some of the italicized passages were indicated by spacing, though and for this edition they are usually italicized. How B. wanted the text to look can probably be best judged by the German editions, to be scanned-in later. In his references to earlier contributions published both in the Annals of Collective Economy (Geneva) and in separate volumes, the author always cites the "Annals" only. The article repeatedly mentioned in Chapter VIII corresponds to the author's paper in "Ending the Unemployment and Trade Crisis", Williams & Norgate Ltd., London, and has been published in the previous PEACE PLANS issue No. 9, as plan 190. Advice to libertarian readers: You will have to remember when and where the book was written and will thus have to read, sometimes, between the line. I admit that this will be difficult for some and if only because of the smallness of the print. (In the original edition. Here I used size 12 and bold print, to facilitate legibility.) The Editor, [John Zube] November 2,001. 108 EDITORIAL Ulrich von Beckerath, in writing his three treaties of which this issue reprints the second dealing seemingly only with monetary freedom, seems to have followed G. Chr. Lichtenberg's advice: "No work of art, particularly no written work, should show the effort it has cost. An author who desires to be read also by generations to come must not fail to drop hints for whole books; thoughts for dissertations, in any paragraph of a chapter, so that one gets the impression that he can afford to give away thousands of them, free." Be it as a result of a special effort or that it came natural to him, one gets this impression of his writings, anyhow. When I began to systematically collect reform ideas, about 12 years ago, I counted once more than 200 in my collection which had been thought up, developed or at least passed on by him. Therefore 1 am inclined to believe that his exceptionally stimulating way of writing (at least for discerning readers) came natural to him. He used to write a great number of letters of comparable thoughtfulness. Why did he nevertheless remain in relative obscurity? (Probably Laotse's remark: "To be appreciated only by a few belongs to my value." - gives part of the explanation. Another explanation is one of the favorite quotes of a friend, Robert Cowin: "Communication takes place only between equals." If your mind is not somewhat close to that of Ulrich von Beckerath, on at least some points, then you will more misunderstand than understand his messages. - J.Z., 25.11.01.) His way of thinking is out of fashion and society has not yet developed the special institutions required to give new ideas their greatest chance for success - by providing them with a truly tree and worldwide market. His writings are so full of provocative thoughts and useful suggestions that they almost amount to the ideal book of which G.Ch. Lichtenberg speaks, a book which contains an interesting thought on every page, a book Lichtenberg stated, for which he would have crawled to for hundreds of miles (from Goettingen to Hamburg) on his knees! - to get a chance to read it. But, do not get your hopes up. You will not understand his message easily by merely skimming through the pages. It requires slow and careful reading, perhaps repeated reading and, after all, as Lichtenberg also said: "A book is like a mirror, if an ape looks into it then indeed, no apostle can look out of it." Don't feel offended by this warning. Did not the same Lichtenberg say: "Man, among all the animals in the world does most closely resemble the ape"? (One might add that when even a gifted author may have battled to express himself-well enough by his own high standards, then one should not expect a fast and superficial reading of his text to clearly reveal to an ordinary mind what he intended to convey. Some books are not written for relaxation - but to make you think! And that can be hard, slow and also exhausting work, so that one cannot read such books comfortably, easily, in a single sitting, confident that one has fully understood the author. Naturally, I can only speak for myself. - J.Z., 29.11.01.) Furthermore, should you feel neither racial pride nor shame, you might console yourself-with another remark by Lichtenberg: "The Hottentots call thinking the scourge of life. "Que des Hottentots parmi nous!" exclaims Helvetius. What a beautiful motto." When, alas, usually only by chance and all too rarely, one comes across books as thoughtful as those of von Beckerath and if one has any aspirations towards self-enlightenment, one is inclined to say again with Lichtenberg, to oneself-and to others, both, hopefully and desperately, that the greatest as yet unexplored and undeveloped area on earth lies right under one's hat. I will make it relatively easy for you, though. I do not expect you to crawl on your knees, for a long time, to get hold of a copy of such a book. I get it delivered right to your door. But, please remember, I myself-had to slave with pen, typewriter, duplicator etc. for about 300 hours to do this for you. Do you appreciate this service? Then subscribe or, if you have already done so, recommend this publication to others and see whether you could further a normal reprint or at least a review. I would not have sent you this pamphlet if I had thought that you are one of those of whom the same Lichtenberg said: "There is much talk about enlightenment. But, my God, what good is all the light when people have no eyes to see, or those, who have them, do purposefully close them?" But in case you should be inclined to save yourself-a lot of hard thinking and simply condemn all money reformers as mere crackpots and cranks then, please, let me quote Lichtenberg, once again, in defence: "They are as foolish as a man, going forward, seems to be in the eyes of a crayfish." Any young man looking for adventure and, yes, personal danger, in this over-regulated, excessively restricted and truly mismanaged world of ours, may be hereby reminded that, if he takes up the study of these proposals and uses them as a compass, then he might become one of the first pioneers who will introduce monetary freedom, thus protecting or re- introducing most other liberties. Nobody, so far, who takes up this journey of discovery, exploration and pioneering development has to fear much competition 109 and anybody could reach the top by conducting the first successful pioneering experiment which is copied afterwards by most others. While more and more discovered already that the true frontier now is freedom, most of the other explorers have not even heard as yet of this new frontier, although it is the most decisive one. Should you find it hard to work your way through the labyrinthic thickets and the swamps, over the mountains and across the flooded rivers of monetary theory, then please, do not forget that you can undertake this exploration from the ease of an armchair.