708
R. H. S. CROSSMAN
We can be sure that this crisis will not repeat the pattern of the
1930's and present us once again with specters of mass unemploy–
ment and under-consumption, spreading from the United States to
engulf the whole world. Indeed, we should be wise to assume that,
in the kind of Affluent Society which is now common to Western
Europe and South America, the masses will from now on be pro–
vided with an ever wider choice of consumer goods-but only at the
cost of neglecting each nation's long-term interests, scamping
vital
public services and imposing gross injustices on the weaker sections
of the community-particularly upon the sick and the old, who rely
so heavily upon State benefits.
Unfortunately Britain is likely to prove the weakest member of
the Western community, since the inflation and over-consumption
inherent in the Affluent Society are aggravated in this country by
the deep conservatism displayed by both sides of industry. The em–
ployers' insistence on quick profits and the demand for annual
wage rises forced upon the unions in a free-for-all economy have
combined to keep capital investment down to a dangerously low
level. As a result, this country, in the race for higher productivity,
has not merely fallen far behind Russia but has been beaten by
Western Germany, France and the United States. Moreover, our
foreign trade is now seriously threatened by the emergence of the
Common Market, whose threat has been consistently underrated
by successive Governments.
Squeezed between three giants-the
United States, the Common Market and the Communist bloc–
there is a risk that, while the rest of the world is improving its
ma–
terial conditions, the British people may suffer an actual cut in their
living standards.
2
How can a people as politically mature as the British be so
blind to these dangers? How can the electorate give a third vote of
confidence to the Conservative Party, which has so consistently
sacrificed long-term national interests in order to provide short–
term improvements in living standards? No objective observer
will
deny that, since 1951, there has been a scandalous neglect of many
of the essentials of a healthy community-capital investment in
in–
dustry, pure and applied scientific research, technological training,
the expansion of higher education, the extension of hospital services
and improved retirement pensions. Public connivance
in
this neglect
