EXCESSIVE FORMS OF CAPITAL DO EXIST 77
new-saved capital, when the self-interest of savers will
naturally lead them to prefer new uses. With the pure
theory of this answer I have no quarrel. If all the “ saved”
incomes do in fact take shape in fixed forms of capital which
supply increased consumption-goods in the shape of new
public or private comforts and conveniences to the present or
even to the next generation, we can thoroughly approve
this saving : it is no cause of diminished employment.
Well, it may be said, does that not settle the matter?
Are there not ample opportunities for the supply of new
or improved public and private needs? Are our towns
as well-built, commodious and beautiful as they might
be ? Are they perfectly supplied with water, lighting, transport,
and other services ? Could not public education
provide a good field of investment for capital and labour
both on the material and intellectual planes? Is it not
self-evident that without passing the barrier of wholesome
personal conveniences a vast and ever-growing number
of good and reasonable wants remain unsatisfied because
there is no capital and labour directed to their satisfaction ?
How in the face of this can over-saving be possible ?
Still more how can it be asserted to actually exist?
The answer is that a sufficient portion of new savings
does not in fact seek these new avenues of socially useful
investment, that a large proportion of it does flow into
channels which are admittedly full, and that when this
congestion is made manifest, much fresh “saving” instead
of seeking new fields of investment accumulates in the
hands of bankers and other persons. That portion of
new savings which embodies itself in forms of capital that
satisfy new wants is both morally and economically justified
: that portion which embodies itself in the socially
