The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-11-17
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
PURCHASING POWER

The term, purchasing power has come i''o
very general use-and it is a term winch Is very
loosely employed Can the government create pun
chasing power by distributing money! The answer
is no. Money is not purchasing power and II uoeS
not create purchasing power as work, Tor lhSUah'e
does. Perhaps this explains why the unprecedented
effort, of our government to hand out money-1or
eveiy conceivable purpOse-has still failed to re-
yiye business and restore the parity of prices when
has TO exist before a general exchange of the
nroducts can take place No-money Is positively
not purchasing power Hence merely increasing
tho volume of money does not increase purchasing
mower You can't eat gold silver, or even paper
money. Anyone with only money on their hands
vopId starye-and all you have to do is to look
a+ the banks to prove this. If money was pur-
chasing power the remedy for hard times would be
simple All that would be necessary would, be To
distribute money and keep on distributing It, But
nation could not live long on such diet as that
No way yet has been found to create products by
magic; they all have to be produced by hard labor
Of some sort-there is no abb here. The Biblical
law still is in force 100 per cent if you think
it isn't: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
breadp' There is no way to create bread except
by working to raise the wheat, grind it, and bake
the bread. All Cne money III Iile "olAu VIII NV
make single loaf of bread
This explains why we cannot expect that the
mere handing out of money will restore prosperity
or bring plenty to the multitude. All anybody can
do with money is to tkae it to somebody else who
is willing to accept that money and give in return
for it products which are the result of labor. By
giving a person 500 you are not increasing the
total purchasing power of the country. All you are
doing is to take 500 from somebody who has
worked for and saved it and give it to somebody
who didn't have it. In other words, it is simply
transfer or shift of buying power, not the creation
of buying power. Paying out millions for relief
does not create a single dollar of additional pur-
chasing power Even when the government collects
money from taxes from the sale of bonds, this
does not add to the total of purchasing power.
Again it, is merely transfer of that amount from
somebody who has it to somebody who hasn't it.
No nation could ever live on its taxes, for though
have great standing army of taX-eateTs
they do little onthing in the way of producing
additional products and additional wealth for the
general good. The standing armies of the Old
World are not much than our standing
armies of unemployed and of people who are on
the various relief rolls-practcally all of whom
are the same as soldiers-that is, nOn-producers
who must live off the labor of the rest of us. Even
raising wages and retail prices doesn't increase the
total purchasing power by even a single cent If
farmers wheat is increased from SO cents to 81
bushel his purchasing power Is theoretically in
creased, but if he finds that he has to pay 50 for
81 pair of overas, then he is no better off than
before. And the people who make and sell the
overalls are likewise no better off, Nobody has
gained a thinC-The Pathfinder