A while back, in the context of my description of a price control mechanism to end monopoly, Jack O'Donnell queried my use of the word "monopoly." He said: "Monopoly is control of anything--it includes the ability to set the price. . . . Most monopolies are trivial such as your ability to set the price for the shirt you are wearing. Some are significant such as your possession of a gallon of water in the middle of the desert. . . . It is a necessary condition for property rights to exist at all."
It seems to me Jack is defining monopoly as ABSOLUTE control, and this social credit would like to do away with. Your right to accept $1,000 for your shirt from a mentally challenged person might be questioned, as might your right to pour life-saving water into the sand. No ownership is absolute, and that is particularly the case with production organizations as opposed to individuals.
All the money the economy works with is lent into existence. Social crediters say that by right that credit is a communal property. So we can say that production organizations as a whole are beholden to the community for the money without which they cannot produce. This makes their obligation to the community, in comparison to a mere individual, all the greater.
Thus, it would be legitimate to demand that production organizations set a fair price in relation to their costs--earn a fair income for their real service but not use the leverage of mere ownership against the public. Social credit does not make this demand, however. It makes the more modest proposal of a voluntary scheme in which businesses who yield their right to set prices can enjoy the benefit of a sort of "matching fund" in which the consumer pays only a fraction and the balance is paid from a fund of newly created credit.
Michael Lane
Triumph of the Past
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