Conservative Denial of Economic Injustice
FROM The ‘Achilles Heel’ of the Conservative Movement by Eric D. Butler (1968):
A genuinely conservative approach to life requires humility, to accept the fact that the man is not self-sufficient. lt is surprising how many conservatives will accept this truth concerning some subjects, but reject it in the field of economics. Far too many conservatives create the impression that their concept of “rugged individualism” is a type of free-for-all where the self-made man succeeds and the weak go to the wall. The truth is that no man is self-sufficient today in the field of economic endeavour. Even those pioneering on some of the world’s remaining frontiers are making use of machinery and technical assistance which comes from co-operative industrial societies, themselves the heirs to a thousand years of “accumulated” industrial arts. The creative conservative of the Twentieth Century must take a new look at economics if he is to meet the Socialist challenge. Some proper humility is a prerequisite.
The following are basic truths which must be accepted in evolving a policy which will enable the best of our civilization to be preserved and developed along the lines of a genuinely conservative and co-operative society, one in which the creative initiative of every individual can find expression:
1. What might be described as man’s basic capital consists of vast natural resources, including the soil. Growth is impossible without sunshine, rain and fresh air. All this is a gift from God. lt is not produced by men’s work. Labour does not produce all wealth as the Socialist and Communist claim.
2. The use of basic capital requires production capital. This has been developed at an ever-accelerating rate because each new generation is the heir to the accumulated knowledge of the past, which is part of man’s cultural heritage. Without this knowledge, man would still be subsisting at a primitive level without even knowing about the wheel. (more…)


