EXCESSIVE  FORMS  STOP  PRODUCTION

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Indeed,  as  matters  actually  stand,  such  capital  expenditure ­
  by  public  bodies  is  very  limited,  and  there  are  no
sufhcient  economic  powers  to  drive  the  requisite  proportion ­
  of  new  savings  into  the  ideally  correct  channels.
Hence  the  frequent  congestion  of  all  ordinary  channels
of  investment,  and  the  excess  of  loanable  capital.
It  is  quite  possible  that  as  large  a  proportion  of  our
present  general  income  as  is  now  “  saved  ”  might  under
different  economic  conditions  be  advantageously  applied
in  forms  of  new  capital.  But  as  matters  actually  stand
some  of  it  represents  “  oversaving  ”  and  brings  about
the  state  of  congestion  and  stoppage  of  industry  which
has  for  one  of  its  leading  aspects  the  malady  of  “unemployment.” ­

§  18.  How  Excessive  Forms  of  Capital  Stop
Production.
Our  saving  class  is  therefore  not  necessarily  causing
an  increase  of  “  employment  ”  by  paying  workers  to  put
up  more  factories  instead  of  using  their  moneys  to
demand  consumables.  So  long  as  the  “saving”  is  actually ­
  in  progress—i.e.,  so  long  as  the  factory  and  machinery ­
  arc  being  made—the  net  employment  of  the  community
is  just  as  large  as  if  the  money  were  spent  to  demand
commodities;  more  labour  is  engaged  in  making  factories,
less  in  working  them.  But  after  the  new  factories  are
made,  they  can  only  be  worked  on  condition  that  there
is  an  increase  of  consumption  correspondent  tp  the  increase ­
  of  producing-powcr—  i.e.,  on  condition  that  a
sufficient  number  of  persons  are  actuated  by  motives
different  from  those  which  animated  the  “  saving  ”  class,  and
will  consent  to  give  validity  to  the  saving  of  the  former  by