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ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

The best way to cure this mortal disease ofindividualism must be to provide that thereshall never exist any confident expectationeither that prices generally are going to fall orthat they are going to rise; and also that thereshall be no serious risk that a movement, if itdoes occur, will be a big one. If, unexpectedlyand accidentally, a moderate movement were tooccur, wealth, though it might be redistributed,would not be diminished thereby.

To procure this result by removing allpossible influences towards an initial move-ment would seem to be a hopeless enterprise.The remedy would lie, rather, in so controllingthe standard of value that whenever somethingoccurred which, left to itself, would create anexpectation of a change in the general level ofprices, the controlling authority should takesteps to counteract this expectation by settingin motion some factor of a contrary tendency.Even if such a policy were not wholly successful,either in counteracting expectations or in avoid-ing actual movements, it would be an improve-ment on the policy of sitting quietly by whilsta standard of value, governed by chance causesand deliberately removed from central control,produces expectations which paralyse or in-toxicate the government of production.

We see, therefore, that rising prices and fall-ing prices each have their characteristic dis-advantage. The Inflation which causes theformer means Injustice to individuals and to