vi
PREFACE
And if it provokes, as it probably will, more wide-spread rationing, the waste and inefficiency willbe aggravated for reasons, explained below, due tothe diversity of men's needs and tastes. The rightplan is to restrict spending power to the suitablefigure and then allow as much consumer's choice aspossible how it shall be spent. Moreover, grad-ually the pressure of spending power will bringin the tide of inflation, which is nature's remedyand the only genuine alternative.
But a further, and even less satisfactory, conse-quence is also probable. A shortage of suppliesrelatively to consumers' spending power will exertan unfavourable pressure on our balance of trade.For it will divert goods from export and give astimulus to the use for current consumption ofimports, and home production too, which mightotherwise have been employed for war purposes.Thus we shall be prevented from putting forthour full war effort and we shall run down ourforeign reserves faster than is prudent.
A reluctance to face the full magnitude of ourtask and overcome it is a coward's part. Yet thenation is not in this mood and only asks to betold what is necessary. It is a fool's part too.For victory may depend on our making it evi-dent, that we can so organize our economicstrength as to maintain indefinitely the excommu-nication of an unrepentant enemy from the com-merce and society of the world.
J. M. Keynes