Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-07-18
PROFIT SYSTEM CAUSED
DEPRESSION
SknX Americana:


l read the article, Mental cbsol-
escence," in your paper, taken from
the Interpreter" l found it interest
ing, but there are a few things in it
that l would like to make some re-
marks about
In it we read: "Now that we have
certainly begun the long, slow climb
back to normal times, ETC." There is
nothing said to prove that there is
a climb back, it is only an assertion,
like the prosperity around the corner.
There is no such thing as long as 1t
can not be reported the following
events are in progress:
That wages are rising in proportion
to the high cost of living; that people
as rule pay their taxes and other
obligations when due; that the idle
workers are getting a living like if
they had work: that debts, public and
private, are reduced; and that this
has been made possible by taxing all
incomes down to what is needed TO
run business and get good living,
instead of, as before, to pay taxes on
living expenses; so the cost of living
has by that been reduced, and the
producers are getting more for the
products, as that tax was pressing
hard toward both sides producer and
consumer).
AS long as it has not begun to go
in that direction, there is no begin
ming of climbing back to normal
times. For some people it is not as
bad as it has been; some of them have
been helped while others have not,
and that has been done with money
borrowed, and is now debt on every
body The prOfiteers are gathering
the money up and are glad to get rid
of it by loaning it to U. S. instead OF
paying it in taxes, but it is making
conditions worse instead of better. To
live on borrowed money never makes
people better off. If there is show
ing in the direction toward better
times, it is only-if l dare to say-a
narcotic used on the ignorant to keep
them asleep a little longer. The root
of the evil the profit system) is still
nOurished
Let us get rid of all kinds of taxes
on living expenses, and tax the in
comes instead of it. The people with
the small incomes are paying many
times what they by reason should pay,
and those with the big incomes are
comparatively free. Let all federal
taxes be paid out of incomes at a ris-
ing scale beginning with the first
81 900 net cash income, and rising one
per cent on each thousand dollars, so
it will be two per cent on the second
Thousand, three per cent on the third,
etc. The people with the high in
low taxes on the small incomes as
those having only small incomes. The
higher the taxes are, the more there
will be left after it is paid.
In all cases there will be more
than enough left for any family to
live on, and any one can remain as
rich as he is when it is only on net
incomes after all other taxes and ex-
penses are paid, but they can not have
the pleasure of taking as a profit that
which other people should have to
live on.
AS sure as the profit system is the
cause of the depression, the only
remedy to put it to an end is to re-
move the cause of it to such an eX-
tent as to make it harmless. 1t
should be understood that profit and
earning are two different things.
Earning is what one gets for service
rendered, or for products sold pro-
duced by his work. Profit is what one
gets by figuring out how to get it out
of others work. usually called bust
ness. That kind of people the "In-
terpreter" is writing about, that have
not used their brains to think, but
let them get rusty, may not under
stand this.
/ have studied this problem for the
last so years, and have seen wealth
being centralized more and more all
years that business would be bound
to kill itself, as there was taken too
great profits so there was not enough
money put into circulation for the
consumer to pay for the goods.
knew it would have to come to an end
and it came. The prOfiteers then
called it an emergency, but it is not
it is the result of a long practiced
systematic taking of profit of others
work as long as there was any to get
The prOfiteers got nearly the whole
thing to draw profit from, but the
real cause of the hard times, people
should not understand.
ANDREW RASMUSSEN.
5000 West River Blvd, Minneapolis