5- The Great Slump of 1930 (1930)

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The world has been slow to realise that weare living this year in the shadow of one ofthe greatest economic catastrophes of modernhistory. But now that the man in the street hasbecome aware of what is happening, he, notknowing the why and wherefore, is as full to-dayof what may prove excessive fears as, previously,when the trouble was first coming on, he waslacking in what would have been a reasonableanxiety. He begins to doubt the future. Is henow awakening from a pleasant dream to facethe darkness of facts? Or dropping off into anightmare which will pass away?

He need not be doubtful. The other wasnot a dream. This is a nightmare, which willpass away with the morning. For the resourcesof Nature and men’s devices are just as fertileand productive as they were. The rate of ourprogress towards solving the material problemsof life is not less rapid. We are as capable asbefore of affording for every one a high standardof life — high, I mean, compared with, say,twenty years ago—and will soon learn to afforda standard higher still. We were not previously

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