I  IO

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

working  classes  to  a  larger  share  of  the  aggregate  consuming-power ­
  of  the  community.
§12.  A  Summary  of  the  w  High  Consumption”
Policy.
Thus  the  recognition  of  “  unemployment  ”  as  the  labour
aspect  of  a  wider  economic  problem—viz.,  the  excess  of
productive  power  over  the  requirements  of  current  consumption, ­
  supplies  us  for  the  first  time  with  a  sound  practical
standard  by  which  to  test  the  worth  of  proposed  remedies
and  palliatives.
It  furnishes  a  strong  economic  justification  for  the  chief
lines  of  action  which  modern  progressive  parties  have
instinctively  taken.  The  transfer  of  economic  rents  and
monopoly  profits  from  private  owners  to  the  public,  whether
by  taxation  of  incomes  or  by  direct  public  assumption  of
the  functions  of  monopolist  industries,  is  seen  to  contribute
to  the  enhancement  of  the  aggregate  consumption  of  the
community.  Similar  results  attend  the  well-considered
endeavours  of  working  classes,  either  by  direct  increase
of  wages  or  by  increased  leisure,  to  increase  the  proportion
of  the  total  wealth  of  the  community,  which  falling  to  them
as  wages  shall  be  spent  in  raising  the  general  standard
of  working-class  consumption.
§  jj.  This  Policy  involves  no  Social  Danger.
But  those  who  are  not  willing  to  admit  the  existence  of
any  large  “  unearned  ”  elements  of  income,  or  who  fear
lest  this  progressive  taxation  might  encroach  too  far,  are
needlessly  alarmed.  Assuming  there  existed  no  large
unearned  elements  of  income,  so  long  as  there  exists  any
quantity  of  unutilised  producing-power,  labour,  land,  and