The individual, the measure of all

Résumé of an address by Mr. Louis Even, director of the Institute of Political Action and editor of Vers Demain, delivered to the members of the Congress held at Sturgeon Falls, Sunday afternoon, September 4, 1960

The Union of Electors is a non-partisan political movement, formed about the papers, Vers Demain, and The Union of Electors, for the purpose of bringing into being a new economic and social order more in conformity with the needs of men and the physical possibilities of satisfying them.

Towards this end, Vers Demain professes the financial principles formulated by the engineer- economist-philosopher, C. H. Douglas, and known under the name of Social Credit.

But to consider the teachings of Douglas as a simple reform of the financial system would be to minimize and distort the vast field of what he taught. As essential as it is, it is still nothing more than a means to an end. And this end is the liberation of the individual and the realization of his title to a part of the wealth realized through the unearned increment of association.

The human individual was created a free being, a social being.

As a free being, the individual should be able to exercise liberty of choice in the organization of his life and in the pursuit of his destiny, assuming the responsibility for the consequences of his choice. This liberty may not be restricted except in respect to the liberty of others.

As a social being, he should be able to benefit, for his own enrichment and the development of his being, from the advantages gained by life in association with others.

Social Credit rejects the subjection of the individual to financial dictatorship, an evil which flourishes presently in all civilized countries, even those which profess to be christian and to respect the rights of men.

Social Credit likewise rejects the enslavement of the individual to the state, as happens in totalitarian countries, and towards which we are gradually moving in our own countries under the pretext of rescuing the individual from the financial problems which have proven too much for him. The solution, which would respect the rights of the individual, would be to root out the basic cause of these financial evils and leave the individual to his own responsibilities.

The individual should not be a tool of finance, or of the State or of any group or any institution. On the contrary, finance, the State, institutions and groups have no right to exist except inasmuch as they serve the welfare of the individual.

Social Credit gives primacy to the individual. And the individual here means each human being.

In this, the philosophy underlying Social Credit is in perfect conformity with Christian philosophy.

Pope Pius XI wrote in Divini Redemptoris: "The human person ought to be placed in the first rank of earthly realities."

Likewise, Pius XII wrote in a letter to the president of Semaines Sociales de France, in 1946:

"In the last analysis, it is towards the liberation of the human individual that all ought to tend and converge. For it is he whom God has placed at the center of the visible universe, making him, in economy as well as in politics, the measure of all."

Everything ought to converge towards the liberation of the individual, towards the suppression of every obstacle to his full development. In economy as in politics, the individual ought to be the measure of all; that is, of regimes, enterprises, commerce, methods of production, distribution, political groups, syndicates of workers and employers, etc.

It is not sufficient to remove the obstacles to the individual's liberty; the goods flowing from life together in society must be placed at his service - material, cultural and spiritual wealth.

In the spiritual order, the Church has done this magnificently, opening its vast spiritual treasures to all, dispensing of its wealth gratuitously, inviting all to partake to the limit.

Following her example, civil society ought also to place at the disposal of all its members the abundant fruits of modern productivity, fruit of life in association, fruit of progress which would not have been realized, nor transmitted from generation to generation, had individuals lived isolated. This wealth could never be achieved by individuals singly, but is due to society, hence should be shared among all the members of society, all individuals, regardless of their status in the economic regime.

Social Credit believes that it can realize in a concrete manner, in the temporal order, this liberation and this enrichment of the individual by the method of sharing the fruits of modern production which it teaches. While continuing to recompense those who by their personal effort participate in production, by a salary, Social Credit demands the distribution to all of a periodic dividend which will recognize their right to a share in the fruits of progress, the fruits of life in association.

The two, salaries and dividends, will constitute purchasing power for the products and services offered. In the measure that progress dispenses with human labour in production the dividend will make up the greater part of the total purchasing power.

Evidently the individual is endowed with something more than rights only. He has also obligations, duties. It is necessary that the common market be sustained. Those individuals qualified ought then to be prepared to give of their labour in the measure that it is still necessary to sustain production. There will be no lack of good will in this respect since in hundreds of communities there are thousands of arms available and ready to be employed so that the flow of goods will not cease.

The share of goods obtained by each individual through the dividend ought to be large enough to procure for him the necessaries in a country so rich that the problem is not to produce but to keep the goods flowing.

Only when the necessary has been satisfied can the individual then exercise his right of choice. But as long as the individual is lacking the necessaries, he is obliged to submit to all the conditions imposed on him to get them. Modern material progress should free the individual from worries which are purely material. If it does not it is because the present financial method of sharing goods does not respect either the liberty or the rights of the individual.

There remains much to be done to make man the center of the visible universe and to constitute him the measure of everything in the realm of economics and politics. Social Credit can contribute greatly towards this end, not only by the dividend for each individual but also by the automatic financing of all physically possible production required by the public and private needs of the people.

And the Social Credit movement through its papers will contribute greatly to this end also by developing in its members the spirit of initiative and personal and social responsibility in their work for the realization of a better world.