[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Can You Believe It?

[Bill Totten]

The Silly Series Number 1

by Vincent Vickers


They kept it a profound secret. They said it was "not in the public
interest" that the news should be broadcast. The fact remains, that I
myself was present when the Great Logical Professor arrived here direct
from Mars, and met the World's leading orthodox economist.

"Well, boys said the Logical Professor from Mars, "Everything okay up
here?"

"Alas! Far from it", said our orthodox economist. "This world is in
economic eruption! Wars and rumors of wars, millions of people
unemployed, ill-fed, ill-clothed, suffering malnutrition and great
poverty, and discontent everywhere!"

"Oh", said the Martian professor. "I suppose, then, that you are
finding it impossible to produce sufficient to feed your increasing
population, and supply them with what they need for a comfortable life?"

"On the contrary", said the orthodox economist, "we have wonderful
machinery! We can produce far more than all the people need; in fact,
we are actually destroying food."

"You don't say", said the astonished professor, "Then there must be
something wrong with your shipping and transport facilities - you can't
carry the goods to the consumers".

"Wrong again", said the orthodox economist. "We have to most up-to-date
and ample transport, and marvelous ships - no, that is not what is
wrong".

"But what else can be wrong?" asked the Martian professor, lifting his
eyebrows.

"Well, you see", said out orthodox economist, "The poor people can't
have the goods because they have not got enough money".

"Money", said the professor from Mars. "What on this earth is that?"

"Fancy you not knowing about money!" said the orthodox economist. "It
was invented by Mankind for his own special benefit long before 1066,
to make everything simple and easy for the exchange of one man's goods
for another man's goods. It enables us to do away with the previous
cumbersome procedure of barter. We do not have to lead a cow down Bond
Street in order to exchange it for perfumes and jewelry; all we have to
do is to exchange the cow for 'money' and then hand over the money for
our other requirements. A wonderful invention, affecting the lives and
happiness of all Mankind!"

"So that is where the trouble lies!" said the professor. "Then,
obviously, what you have got to do is to alter your money system, so as
to enable these discontented millions of people to buy the things they
need, and employ your unemployed!"

"Oh, we must not do that", exclaimed the orthodox economist, with a
shocked expression on his face. "We must not alter out ancient money
system! No, that would never do!"

"But why not?" said the professor from Mars. "Am I to understand that
this invention has become a sort of 'religion' with rules and
regulations that cannot be changed?"

"Well", said the orthodox economist, gazing down rather sheepishly at
his white spats, "I had not thought of it that way before, but you are
right - it is a 'religion' with us. We call it 'Sound Finance!'"

The big, thick lips of the professor slowly curled themselves into a
Martian grin. Without a word, he clambered back into his
rocket-apparatus and started off for home. And when he had reached a
height of some eighty thousand meters, he looked down on the World,
flapped his great ears, and laughed, and laughed, and LAUGHED.

_____

Vincent Vickers was a Director of the Bank of England, a Director of
the Vickers Limited, and a Deputy-Liutenant of the City of London. He
had exceptional inside knowledge and experience of trading and banking.
This knowledge convinced him that the present economic system is so
dangerously unwise that he felt it his duty during the later years of
his life to work whole-heartedly for its reform.

In 1926 Vickers told the Governor of the Bank of England, Montagu
Norman, that henceforth he would fight Montagu and the Gold Standard
and the Bank of England Policy until Vickers died. And he did. Vincent
Vickers died on November 3rd 1939 after a long illness. All the while
he was sick he was working and writing on economic reform.

Before his death Vickers started The Silly Series, which he intended to
be a series of short humorous leaflets on economics. He never got
beyond Number 1 before his death. Arian Nevin plans to continue The
Silly Series started by Vickers.

Questions, Comments, or Submissions?
Email Here: comments at nationaleconomy.net

http://www.nationaleconomy.net/sillyseries1.html


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