THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 52, 1 February 1932, Page 2

THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Daily we read suggestions for curing the unemployed problem. Weekly we read of tlie difficulties confronting our boys and girls when they endeavour to make a start at their working life. Occasionally we huve articles condemning “robot,” the mechanical man. /These three are closely associated, the remedy for one being the remedy for all. The present trend is to increase the number of “robots”; to increase the working hours of humans in constant work; and to increase the tax' upon both to support the humans they have displaced. Obviously, there can be little chanoe for the youth if there is no work for the grown up worker. In' the early davs of the steam-engine, and the mills of Britain, the mass of people of a community had to work sixteen nours per day. This included the women, and the children from five years of age. The standard of living was very , low. More “robots” were introduced, and production became greater than consumption, causing the inevitable slump about every quarter century. In every case a snorter working day was the remedy for unemployment caused by “robot”- doing the slave work. The standard of living for the mass of people gradually got better until a few years ago, when it became necessary for the father alone of a family to work, and then only for eight hours per day. At the present time, about forty minutes per day less worked by the mass of employed people would absorb the unemployed. Naturally, the pay envelope would be smaller at the end of the week, but its value would be the same, because taxation would not be necessary to support the unemployed. Once again, “robot” '8 the friend who made our present standard of living possible. It is m the human control of “robot” that our weakness lies.—l am, etc., EMPLOYED WORKER.