CH. 24

CONCLUDING NOTES

381

public scandal of wasted resources intolerable, but theindividual enterpriser who seeks to bring these re-sources into action is operating with the odds loadedagainst him. The game of hazard which he plays isfurnished with many zeros, so that the players as a wholewill lose if they have the energy and hope to deal allthe cards. Hitherto the increment of the world’swealth has fallen short of the aggregate of positiveindividual savings; and the difference has been madeup by the losses of those whose courage and initiativehave not been supplemented by exceptional skill orunusual good fortune. But if effective demand isadequate, average skill and average good fortune willbe enough.

The authoritarian state systems of to-day seem tosolve the problem of unemployment at the expense ofefficiency and of freedom. It is certain that the worldwill not much longer tolerate the unemployment which,apart from brief intervals of excitement, is associated—and, in my opinion, inevitably associated—with present-day capitalistic individualism. But it may be possibleby a right analysis of the problem to cure the diseasewhilst preserving efficiency and freedom.

IV

I have mentioned in passing that the new systemmight be more favourable to peace than the old hasbeen. It is worth while to repeat and emphasise thataspect.

War has several causes. Dictators and others such,to whom war offers, in expectation at least, a pleasurableexcitement, find it easy to work on the natural belli-cosity of their peoples. But, over and above this,facilitating their task of fanning the popular flame, arethe economic causes of war, namely, the pressure ofpopulation and the competitive struggle for markets.It is the second factor, which probably played a pre-