(A talk delivered by Gilberte Côté, on the CKAC Radio Station in Montreal,
and reproduced in the February 1, 1944 issue of the Vers Demain Journal.)

Putting money in its proper place

When a Social Crediter addresses an audience who hears a lecture on Social Credit for the first time, the words which come immediately to the listeners' lips are: “This makes a lot of sense.”

Social Credit indeed makes a lot of sense, because it wants to put all public things in their proper places.

And since it is money that, in our present society, has most departed from its function, Social Credit begins by subjugating money.

Subjugating money is to put it in its proper place, to make money fulfill its function, to organize the financial system so that money reaches its objective.

The objective of money, the final cause as we say in philosophy, the reason why money is made, is none other than to make good products and services easier to sell so that they can reach the consumers who need them.

Is our monetary system corrupted?

If money hinders the sale of products, the monetary system is corrupted.

If money leads to the destruction of men and things, the monetary system is corrupted.

If money is a weapon of exploitation, the monetary system is corrupted.

If money makes souls become corrupt, the monetary system is corrupted.

If money is sovereign, and commands a humanity in servitude, the monetary system is corrupted.

Now, the present monetary system hinders the sale of products, leads to destruction, creates exploiters, corrupts souls, and enslaves people.

Hinders the sale of products

That money is a hindrance to the sale of production, no one doubted during the ten years' crisis that we have lived through. The windows were filled with good things wanted by consumers. The only obstacle for these good things to pass into homes was the lack of money.

And money was lacking in wallets more and more as industry grew. Because, as an industry grows, some money comes into being, but with the function of putting to death, cancelling, some money already in existence.

The industrialist registers the development of his industry with the bank manager. And the bank manager brings money into being, creates it. But this money must return to the bank to die, to be cancelled, before very long, bringing with it the interest which it will have taken from money already in circulation.

With the prospect of the birth of products, some money comes into being. With the birth of products realized, this same money dies and simultaneously brings about the disappearance of other older money.

This is a corrupted system which, instead of making the sale of products easier, hinders their sale. A good system would be one that would put more money in front of more products, and less money in front of less products.

The present monetary system does the exact opposite. The more the products, the less the money in front of them, by virtue of this corrupted birth of money which carries the stain of original sin of having to die, and of dying after having eaten other money, without having itself increased.

This is why, the more a country is developed, the more it gets into debt — private debt and public debt. The African deserts are not debt-ridden, because they are not developed; whereas Western nations, rich with all kinds of things are indebted even beyond their wealth, since as their wealth increases, their debt increases even faster.

Social Credit, in front of products, will therefore create a money exempt from the death penalty and exempt from the mission of killing other money, and thus prevent money from hindering the sale of products. This is one of the features of the Social Credit monetary system.

A cause of war

Our present monetary system leads to war.

In peacetime, one manufactures good things. But, there is never enough money to buy all the good things that consumers want to buy. It is absolutely inevitable that a day will come when industry will manufacture bad things that consumers do not want to buy, but that governments will buy. These badly-manufactured things will cause money to come into the consumers' hands. And the consumers, with this money, will buy the good things which, in peacetime, remained on the shelves.

One understands that the bad things are the cannons and all the other instruments of destruction. But, for governments to buy these cannons, they must be able to use them. So a war is needed.

The facts show it

The facts show it. The good products have been selling since the war started. And the good products have been selling for money that came from war production. Without war industries, peacetime industries do not sell their products.

With tight money in times of peace and plenty, you must start a war from time to time to allow the sale of all products which have lain about for a long time.

Do not several people welcome war as the best remedy to unemployment? The unemployed, who are the victims of the tight-money policy, earn their daily bread through the soldier's pay. Without a preceding crisis, it would undoubtedly be difficult to find soldiers for war.

Our tight-money system therefore leads to war. Social Credit, which would put enough money into circulation during peacetime, would destroy a great cause of wars.

Creates exploitation

The present monetary system creates exploiters. We have seen it. We still see it. And we can easily explain it.

The unemployed are exploited people. And unemployment is inevitable when money is tight, since industries close their doors.

Owners of homes, farms, businesses, industries, who see their goods taken away from them by the tight-money system, are exploited people.

Young people, whom tight money and war prevent from earning a decent living and from starting homes, are exploited people.

Parents, whom tight money and war prevent from having children or raising them properly, are exploited people.

Statesmen, teachers, politicians, members of Parliament, ministers, from whom tight money removes their freedom, are exploited people.

Taxpayers, payers of interest to the bankers for an astronomical debt, are exploited people.

All the noble-minded souls, who immolate their ideal in front of a salary, for a minimum standard of living, are exploited people.

And all of these exploited people are the victims of the tight-money system.

The present monetary system therefore favours exploitation in all its forms.

Corrupts souls

And the present monetary system corrupts souls.

There are those who are prepared to quiet their consciences to earn a living. There are those who have become capable of assassinating their neighbours with great calm, in order to live under a tight-money system.

How many businessmen have robbed their competitors and others because they would not have been able to withstand competition without doing so! How many professionals have immolated their science and art on the altars of comfort and the desire to live according to their rank! How many public officials have sold their country to buy economic security for themselves! And all these guardians of noble principles are ready to shrink the absolute to the scale of their comfortable lives!

The corruption of souls is so profound, because of the tight-money system, that it has become a moral law, a philosophy of earning money as the goal of human life:

You will be educated to earn more money. You will choose such and such an occupation because it pays more. You will leave your wife and children to go earn a living. You will study the techniques of selling so as to extract more for a service of less worth. You will assassinate your neighbour because you have to live. Let us not give money for nothing; it would make lazybones. Money must be earned painfully; otherwise men will not love the good Lord. Business is business. Make your family suffer to put money aside. One must not mix business with his private life: this is an excuse for all kinds of treason. Etc.

All these false precepts are currently used because money is scarce! This is the way the present tight-money system holds humanity in servitude. The human person bows in adoration to the golden calf that has been substituted for God. The principal object of his preoccupation is money.

Diverted from its end

The monetary system is organized in favour of other objectives than its own.

The monetary system must have one objective, and only one, namely: to make the sale of products easier. That is all.

A monetary system that pretends to reach other objectives is bad. Just as a car which is made to transport passengers, and which would try to heat up a house, would be a bad car and a bad furnace.

It is the car that transports. It is the furnace that heats. The car that is well fitted to its objective — to transport — and that transports well, is a good car. The furnace that is well fitted to its objective — to give heat — and that gives good heat, is a good furnace. Let us ask of these two things nothing but to fulfill their functions, and let us take the necessary steps to achieve this.

Only Social Credit subjugates money

What do modern reforms propose to do to remedy this awkward monetary system?

Nothing, nothing, nothing. In general, the reformers reform everything except money.

And these reformers who suggest monetary reforms, carefully avoid specifying what these reforms are.

Only the Social Crediters advocate sound money, based on real wealth, created debt free, and reaching the consumers.

Thus, money will make the sale of products easier; it will no longer lead to war; it will make production work to fulfill the needs of families; it will dethrone the exploiters; it will free men from their slavery, and consequently favour the practice of virtue, since virtue involves free men.