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Social Credit (often called Socred for short) is an economic ideology and a social movement which started in the early 1920s. Social Credit was originally an economic theory developed by Scottish engineer Major C. H. Douglas. The name Social Credit came from his desire to make the betterment of society (Social) the goal of the monetary system (Credit). This article is about the country. ...
Major C. H. (Clifford Hugh) Douglas MIMechE, MIEE, (January 20, 1879-September 29, 1952) son of Hugh Douglas and Louisa Horfdern, was a Scottish engineer and pioneer of the Social credit concept. ...
The Canadian social credit movement was by far the most notable, but the ideas also gained some lesser success in other countries. One such country was New Zealand, where the Social Credit Party gained several seats in the national parliament, with 21% of the total votes at one election. In England, the Kibbo Kift Kindred, a small breakaway from the Boy Scout movement, transformed itself into the Green Shirt Movement for Social Credit, a political uniform-wearing paramilitary mass-movement, that marched, demonstrated and agitated in the 1930s for the introduction of a Social Credit system. The Canadian social credit movement was a Canadian political movement originally based on the Social Credit theory of Major C. H. Douglas. ...
One of the several logos used during the history of the Social Credit Party The New Zealand Social Credit Party (sometimes called Socred) was a political party which served as the countrys third party from the 1950s through into the 1980s. ...
The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift was founded in 1920 by the charismatic John Hargrave (White Fox), artist, author and Boy Scout Commissioner for Woodcraft and Camping, who had become disenchanted with the increasingly militaristic tendency in the Scout movement after WWI. He was promptly expelled from the Scouts by...
The Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was a political party in the United Kingdom. ...
A number of political movements have involved their members wearing uniforms, typically as a way of showing their identity in marches. ...
Theory
C. H. Douglas proposed that because rate of flow of income received in any period of production was less than the prices generated in the same period there arose a deficiency in purchasing power in that period. He demonstrated this ostensible flaw with his A+B theorem, which states that if A is the payments made to all the consumers in the economy (through wages, salaries and dividends) and B is the payments made by producers that are not paid to consumers (such as the overhead costs of buildings and equipment as they wear out) then the price charged for all goods must be at least A+B , but as only "A" payments are received as income then incomes received were less than prices generated in the same period of production. Major C. H. (Clifford Hugh) Douglas MIMechE, MIEE, (January 20, 1879-September 29, 1952) son of Hugh Douglas and Louisa Horfdern, was a Scottish engineer and pioneer of the Social credit concept. ...
It has been suggested that Operating cost be merged into this article or section. ...
For such a system to sustain itself Douglas asserted that some or all of the following must happen:
- People go into debt by buying on credit
- Governments borrow and increase the national debt
- Businesses borrow from banks to finance expansion, in a way that creates new money
- Businesses sell below cost, and eventually go bankrupt
- A state wins a trade war, putting foreigners in debt to us for our surplus of exports
- A state has a real war, "exporting" goods such as tanks and bombs to the enemy without ever expecting to be paid for them, financing this by government borrowing
If these things don't happen "businesses are forced to lay off workers, unemployment rises, the economy stagnates, taxes go unpaid, governments cut back services, and we have widespread poverty, when physically all of us could be living in plenty." Credit as a financial term, used in such terms as credit card, refers to the granting of a loan and the creation of debt. ...
Government debt (public debt, national debt) is money owed by government, at any level (central government, federal government, national government, municipal government, local government, regional government). ...
Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ...
A trade war refers to two or more nations raising or creating tariffs or other trade barriers on each other in retaliation for other trade barriers. ...
The Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb produced in the United States. ...
Douglas believed that Social Credit could fix this problem by ensuring that there was always enough money (credits) issued to buy all the goods that could be produced. His solution is outlined in three core demands:
- For a "National Credit Office" to calculate on a statistical basis the amount of credit that should be circulating in the economy;
- For a price adjustment mechanism that reflects the real cost of production (aggregate consumption in the same period of time);
- For a "National Dividend" to give a basic guaranteed income to all regardless of whether or not they have a job.
The engineer argued that this last demand makes sense now that automation and labor-saving devices have reduced the number of workers we need to produce our goods, and the hours they would have to work.
Douglas' ideas enjoyed great popularity during the Great Depression, although not enough to realize his plan. The Great Depression was the result of the economic downturn that started with the Stock Market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. ...
Some prominent groups and individuals, most notably the poet Ezra Pound and the leaders of the Australian League of Rights, have subscribed to Social Credit as an economic theory, believing that it demonstrated the guilt of "Jewish bankers," who supposedly control the world's economy[citation needed]. Social Credit lays the blame for many economic woes at the feet of private banks, most especially those that practice fractional-reserve banking. Douglas turned to anti-Semitism by the end of the Second World War.[1] Anti-Semitism was not wide-spread among the theory's supporters, although Solon Earl Low, leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada from 1944 to 1961 was a noted anti-Semite. Ezra Pound in 1913. ...
The Australian League of Rights is a political organisation in Australia that claims to uphold the virtues of freedom. ...
“Banker†redirects here. ...
Fractional-reserve banking refers to the common banking practice of issuing more money than the bank holds as reserves. ...
Categories: People stubs | 1900 births | 1962 deaths | Social Credit Party of Canada Leaders ...
Later versions of Social Credit theory Robert A. Heinlein described a Social Credit economy in his first novel, For Us, the Living (published in 2003, but apparently written ca. 1939). (Beyond This Horizon describes a similar system, but in less detail.) The society in the book uses a method to prevent inflation: the government makes a deal with business owners. Instead of increasing prices, they cut prices, and the government (or the Bank of the United States) pays them the difference after seeing their sales receipts. Like the guaranteed income or heritage checks, this money comes out of the inkwell. In the future, the government no longer uses taxation to fund itself. The characters point out that present "fractional reserve" law allows banks to create money (by loaning out many times more money than they have on hand), while in Heinlein's future society only the US government can create US currency. Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of hard science fiction. ...
For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs is a 1939 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, published for the first time on November 28, 2003. ...
Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 2003 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Beyond This Horizon is a 1942 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. ...
Robert Anton Wilson proposed another form of Social Credit. His plan aimed to end wage slavery, and began by offering a reward to any worker who designed him-or-herself out of a job. The guaranteed income (or, in the Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy, a lesser reward to all other workers who "lose" their jobs to innovation) would prevent starvation. This income would consist of "trade aids" which would lose numerical value with the passage of time. This official reduction in value would encourage spending and (although Wilson does not state this explicitly) limit price inflation. Elsewhere, Wilson attributed this strategy to Silvio Gesell, who also suggested the government encourage small communities to experiment with alternative economic models. If one of these enclaves seemed especially successful, the country could copy their model in place of Gesell's own plan. Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was a prolific American novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurologist, anarchist, and conspiracy theory researcher. ...
Wage slavery is a term used to refer to a condition in which a person is legally (de jure) voluntarily employed but practically (de facto) a slave. ...
Jean Silvio Gesell (March 17, 1862–March 11, 1930) was a merchant and finance theoretician. ...
Arguments Many if not all critics of Social Credit have argued that it would cause inflation.
Heinlein's presentation contains a modified A+B theorem, stressing the argument that all savings remove money from circulation. Wilson does not seem to mention this justification for the plan, stressing instead that the plan (in his view) would end poverty, taxation and wage slavery.
Groups influenced by Social Credit
Australia The Australian League of Rights is a political organisation in Australia that claims to uphold the virtues of freedom. ...
The Douglas Credit Party was an Australian political party based around the social credit theory of monetary reform, first set out by C. H. Douglas. ...
Canada Federal political parties: Provincial political parties: The Social Credit Party of Canada (French: Parti Crédit social du Canada), was a conservative - populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. ...
The Canadian social credit movement was a Canadian political movement originally based on the Social Credit theory of Major C. H. Douglas. ...
Historically in Quebec, Canada, there was a number of political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement. ...
The Abolitionist Party was a Canadian political party founded by perennial candidate John C. Turmel on a platform of: monetary reform, including the abolition of interest rates, abolishing income tax, the use of Local employment trading system banking, and introducing a form of social credit with monthly dividends being paid...
The Christian Credit Party was a short-lived Canadian political party founded in 1982 by perennial candidate and former social credit activist, John C. Turmel. ...
The Canadian Action Party (CAP) is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1997. ...
The Global Party of Canada is a minor green political party in Canada, led by Edward John Slota of Toronto. ...
Organizations: The Social Credit Party of Alberta is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values. ...
The British Columbia Social Credit Party, whose members are known as Socreds, was the governing political party of British Columbia, Canada, for more than 30 years between the 1952 provincial election and the 1991 election. ...
The Manitoba Social Credit Party (originally the Manitoba Social Credit League) was a political party in the Canadian province of Manitoba. ...
The Social Credit Party of Ontario was a minor political party at the provincial level in the Canadian province of Ontario from the 1940s to the early 1970s. ...
The Ralliement créditiste du Québec was a political party in Québec, Canada that operated under several names from 1970-1980. ...
The Social Credit Party of Saskatchewan was a political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan that promoted social credit economic theories from the mid-1930s to the late 1960s. ...
The Pilgrims of St. ...
The Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER) is an international publishing and education centre based in Toronto, Canada. ...
Albertas Social Credit government introduced prosperity certificates in 1936 in an attempt to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression. ...
New Zealand The Country Party of New Zealand was a political party which based itself around rural voters. ...
Current Democratic Party logo This article is about the modern party based around the social credit theory. ...
The New Democratic Party of New Zealand was a small political party established in 1972. ...
One of the several logos used during the history of the Social Credit Party The New Zealand Social Credit Party (sometimes called Socred) was a political party which served as the countrys third party from the 1950s through into the 1980s. ...
Solomon Islands The Solomon Islands Social Credit Party (Socreds) is a political party in the Solomon Islands that espouses social credit theories of monetary reform. ...
United Kingdom The Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was a political party in the United Kingdom. ...
Social Credit in fiction and poetry For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs is a 1939 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, published for the first time on November 28, 2003. ...
Ezra Pound in 1913. ...
Ezra Pound in 1913 The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. ...
See also - This entry is related to, but not included in the Political ideologies series or one of its sub-series. Other related articles can be found at the Politics Portal.
Distributism Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ...
Distributism, also known as distributionism and distributivism, is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such Roman Catholic thinkers as G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc to apply the principles of social justice articulated by the Roman Catholic Church, especially in Pope Leo XIIIs encyclical Rerum Novarum[1] and...
References
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