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THE  PROBLEM  Or  THE  UNEMPLOYED

useless  multiplication  of  existing  forms  of  capital  is  harmless
as  regards  employment  so  long  as  it  continues  to  embody  itself
thus,  but  when  by  clogging  the  wheels  of  industry  it  stop  ;
the  machinery  and  checks  the  investment  of  new  “savings”,
it  contributes  to  that  state  of  under-employment  and
under-production  which  we  call  “  tradedepression.”
§  ij.  The  Theoretic  Limit  of  Socially  Useful
Forms  of  Capital.
The  theory  that  all  new  savings  should  and  must  find
socially  useful  employment  is  contradicted  by  the  facts.
It  is  also  unsound  as  a  theory.  Those  who  urge  it  show
no  motive  force  sufficient  to  compel  new  savings  to  invest
themselves  in  socially  useful  ways.  The  individual  saver
does  not  want  to  raise  the  general  level  of  consumption,
he  simply  wants  to  find  a  remunerative  investment  for
his  capital.  This  he  can  often  find,  and  still  oftener
thinks  he  can  find,  in  setting  up  new  forms  of  capital  in
trades  which  are  already  sufficiently  provided  for  the  supply
of  current  consumption.  No  guarantee  can  be  offered  to
him  that  that  heterogeneous  body  of  consumers  called  the
public  will  pay  him  a  higher  rate  of  interest  for  putting
his  savings  into  untried  ventures  which  shall  stimulate
and  satisfy  a  new  want.
Public  improvements  of  an  enduring  order  do  indeed
absorb  a  large  and  a  growing  quantity  of  new  saving.
But  even  here  the  quantity  of  capital  which  the  most
enlightened  public  body  could  safely  apply,  with  reasonable ­
  regard  to  social,  industrial,  and  other  changes  in  the
future,  is  strictly  limited  at  any  given  time.  A  lavish  expenditure ­
  with  a  view  to  a  far  distant  consumption  would
often  be  a  wasteful  and  an  antisocial  policy.