Social Credit Views

Social Crediters have repeatedly warned that there is a chronic economic cause, entirely artificial in nature and, therefore, unnecessary, which inexorably leads nations to take up arms against each other.

Recent events and discussions with both Douglas Social Crediters and others have brought the profit-regulation condition that was sometimes presented by Douglas as being part and parcel of the compensated price mechanism discount into focus. While some, following Douglas’ indications, have defended the profit-regulation mechanism as a necessary and/or important feature of the compensated price discount, others, including some seasoned Social Crediters, have objected to it as unnecessary and/or problematic for a variety of reasons. Rather than attempting to solve the problem or to resolve the dispute (which perhaps can only be properly decided definitively one way or the other by an empirical trial), I will aim to put the issue in context and to outline some of the main considerations both in favour and against the profit-regulation condition.

     C’est en effet grâce aux efforts des Pèlerins que j’ai pris conscience pour la première fois du Crédit Social Douglas au début des années 2000 et « The Money Myth Exploded » a été l’un des premiers documents que j’ai lu. Pour leur zèle et leur dévouement, je leur serai éternellement reconnaissant, mais mes études plus approfondies de la doctrine du Crédit Social accomplies dans l'intervalle m'ont maintenant obligé à fournir les mises en garde suivantes. Quels que soient ses mérites, et ils sont nombreux, une lecture trop littérale ou hors contexte de « L’Île des Naufragés » peut conduire le lecteur à des conclusions erronées et sérieusement trompeuses. Il est donc nécessaire de les expliquer de manière assez détaillée afin que de tels écarts puissent être scrupuleusement évités.

Whatever its merits, and there are many, a too literal or out of context reading of “The Money Myth Exploded” can lead the reader to some erroneous and seriously misleading conclusions. It is therefore necessary to explain what these are in some detail so that any such deviations can be scrupulously avoided

Elon Musk's Canadian Grandfather was a big proponent of Douglas Social Credit as an anti-communist programme for monetary and financial reform. It would surely make getting to Mars a lot easier.

After a recent conversation with Arindam Basu, it occurs to me that there is yet another method of explaining the Douglas Social Credit approach to our financial and economic systems for the benefit of newcomers. This has to do with the notion of constraints. There are natural constraints, i.e., constraints that are built into the very nature of things and are of a physical or metaphysical nature, and then there are artificial constraints, i.e., constraints that arise merely because of arbitrary (or not so arbitrary) human conventions that can be, at least in principle, abandoned, replaced, or altered at will.

     The financial and economic problem that has plagued civilization since the dawn of the industrial age may be described as a Gordian knot[1], i.e., as an intractable problem that cannot be solved within its own conventional framework, but only by thinking outside of the box. Those few of us who have studied both the problem and Douglas’ response to it in-depth have become convinced that Douglas, like a modern-day Alexander, cut this Gordian knot and discovered the correct path for the harmonious resolution of this problem.

     The irony, however, is that when it comes to effectively and efficiently communicating Douglas’ brilliance to a wider public, the Douglas Social Credit vision for our financial system and economic life may itself be likened to a Gordian knot (not in itself, but in deciding how best to explain it). There are so many issues, positions, evidences, and arguments bound up in the problem and so many potential misapprehensions, prejudices, ideological blinders, and confusions on the part of the newcomer, that it normally takes an individual, even those who are well-disposed, countless hours of intense study to decipher exactly what Douglas was on about and to fully appreciate the ingeniousness and elegance of his proposed solutions to our various (but often intimately and intricately related) social problems. Over the years, I have attempted, by various means and with various degrees of success, to drastically cut down the time and effort necessary for the would-be learner to understand DSC. After the lengthy pondering that was occasioned by last month’s attempt (“Douglas Social Credit by Way of Metaphor”), I think I have now found, in its broad outlines, what is perhaps the shortest, most direct route that has ever been articulated.

For whatever reason, Douglas Social Credit seems to exhibit an unusually high informational “barrier to entry” and yet it is vital that as many people as possible would come to understand it as quickly as possible because the financial analysis and remedial proposals of Major C.H. Douglas (1879-1952) are the solution to 90% or more of our financial, economic, political, cultural, environmental, and international problems. In what follows, I will focus on the monetary dimensions of Douglas Social Credit, though the reader should be aware that DSC constitutes a much broader body of thought which incorporates a social philosophy, a political theory, and also a theory of history. Since the easiest way to grasp something new and therefore unknown is to approach it by means of the known, this article relies heavily on metaphors to communicate the truth of Douglas’ vision.

On January 3rd, 2024 and again on January 10th, 2024, Dr. Oliver Heydorn appeared as a guest of Journalist Mark Anderson on the Republican Broadcasting Network. The interviews can be accessed under "read more".

     If the inflation we are witnessing is cost-push, instead of demand-pull, or insofar as it is cost-push, there is another way of dealing with the problem which governments and their central banks should seriously consider: compensated price discounts. Instead of increasing wages across the board (which will only further increase prices), the same amount of money required for the wage increases could be spent on reducing prices through a universally applied discount (a kind of reverse sales tax). Retailers would be compensated to the extent of the discount (enabling them to meet their costs in full), while consumers would see the purchasing power of their current wages, savings, etc., correspondingly increased. The cost-push inflation would be neutralized and everyone would benefit.