THE CHARACTER OF THE SOLUTION 11

all those who are foregoing immediate consump-tion, instead of being mainly concentrated, as theywere last time, in the hands of the capitalist class.

The second provision is to provide for thisdeferred consumption without increasing theNational Debt by a general capital levy after thewar.

The third provision is^to protect from anyreductions in current consumption those whosestandard of life offers no sufficient margin. This iseffected by an exempt minimum, a sharplyprogressive scale and a system of family allow-ances. The net result of these proposals is, toincrease the consumption of young families withless than 75s. a week, to leave the aggregateconsumption of the lower income group having£5 a week or less nearly as high as before thewar (whilst at the same time giving them rights,in return for extra work, to deferred consumptionafter the war), and to reduce^the aggregate con-sumption of the higher income group with morethan £5 a week by about a third on the average.

The fourth provision (Chapter VIII), renderedpossible by the previous provisions but not itselfessential to them, is to link further changes inmoney-rates of wages, pensions and other allow-ances to changes in the cost of a limited range ofrationed articles of consumption, an iron rationas it has been called, which the authorities willendeavour to prevent, one way or another, fromrising in price.

This scheme, put forward in the light ofcriticism and after further reflection, is more