ASTONISHMENT ABOUT THIS BOOK

What if a bunch of world-shattering thinkers, such as Jesus, Freud,

Darwin and Einstein, would meet and focus on the condition of
today’s people? Certainly, they would find enough motives not to be
satisfied. No doubt, they would not hesitate to call a spade a spade.
Surely, they would come with some solutions for giving ordinary
people a chance to evolve, to break free from their daily commuting
between job, pub and / or TV couch.
The result might as well be a book like this you are reading now. A
generous approach, a scope wide enough to deal with improving
social life of whole communities – however carefully avoiding
utopian or totalitarian concepts, keen analysis of social mechanisms
and a daring and promising solution.

The author, Mr. John Wolfgang Halpern, has seen enough of this
world (among others, two World Wars) to feel the urge for trying to
improve it, and his extensive background as inventor provides him the
tools to devise quite a simple and ingenious system, able to make
ordinary employees be more than that, namely to have the means,
opportunities and incentives for concerning about their own
development and the development of their natural and social
environment in a similar way their employers try to develop their
businesses.
Editor

- 5
ENHANCED ECONOMICS
AN EXTENSION OF PRIVATE ENTREPRENEURIAL
DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY

William Ward
and
John W. Halpern

First edition 2003

GEST Consulting
Bucharest, Romania

© 2003 John W. HALPERN

___________________________________________________________
Published by: GEST Consulting, Bucharest, Romania
Contact e-mail: nicda55@yahoo.com

- 6
 INTRODUCTION AND DEDICATION

When, in 1967 and 1968, Mr. William Ward and the

undersigned suggested to some friends that we felt the time
was ripe for hearing our ideas about improved industrial and
social relations in this country (the UK), we genuinely
believed that we could start a constructive discussion which
would be taken up and continued by any number of
organisations. The result however showed that this was not
the case.

Today, in spite of increased confusion, the prospect is no

better. People, it seems, lack the energy for taking problem
situations seriously. May those who happen to read this book
be an exception to this rule.

Mr. Ward, who died on February 28, 1999, has been very
actively involved in the 1968 presentations and,
independently from myself, prepared three addresses
importantly supplementing the subject of this book. His
character and his views are intimately interwoven with the
contents of this booklet and I am therefore justified in
dedicating this little volume to his memory.

John W. Halpern

At Hereford, December 2, 2002

- 7
 PART I

The Involution of New Factors in Business Life as

the Cornerstone of New Vistas of Social Health
(title of a lecture delivered in summer 1968)

This conference has been convened so that Mr Ward and I

may present to you a set of ideas concerning the social and
economic life, ideas that are believed to be sufficiently
different and distinct from current thinking on these subjects
to justify an exchange of thought on them. Not only those
who are gathered here but millions of people become more
and more aware of the inadequacy of the mental tools and
attitudes with which we currently try to master our economic
destiny as a nation. And there arises a pretty central question:
Why is it that scores of earnestly striving economists and
social reformers who are well familiar with the scientific
method of enquiry and spend all their lives in gathering facts
and understanding, why is it they have failed in making any
headway?

Recently I passed The Henry George School of Economics in

Vauxhall Street and asked for a leaflet on their courses. In
one of these leaflets I read a motto from a book by Sir ED
Simon as follows:

"The citizen of democracy needs certain intellectual qualities.

It is not enough to love truth; he must learn how to find it. It
is easy to teach students to reason correctly in the physical
sciences; it is much more difficult to teach them to reason
correctly in the social sciences where their own prejudices and
passions are involved. They must be taught habits of clear
thinking in order that they may acquire the power of

- 8
 recognising their own prejudices and of discussing political
and economic questions with the same calm, the same
precision and absence of overstatement, as they would bring
to the discussion of a problem in mathematics."

We regard our endeavour here in such a light that whatever

else we value we shall try not to drop below the above quoted
criteria.

Accepting this, the very first question we have to ask is this:

Why is it then that the scientific attitude and spirit has proved
to be extremely successful in guiding the human mind into the
detailed acquaintance with the world that surrounds us and in
giving man wings for courageously transforming his physical
life conditions beyond recognition over the past 200 years
while, at the same time, our social and economic changes
have not been mustered and harmonised by us in any
comparable manner?

I believe it is useful very briefly to try to answer this question.

The world of natural forces and qualities are primary realities.
They form part of the Universe. Human institutions, on the
other hand are not primary realities, they are rather products
of past historic conditions and thinking; however, those who
deal with sociology and economics professionally treat the
relics of past human conditions as if they were primary
phenomena. The result is that we see people writing books
about money, money circulation, about the role of trade
unions, the role of the state, the various forms of capital, and
so on, and in their expositions they take these concepts in
their finished fossilised forms trying to mould them as good as
it goes into some "system" of scientific interpretation of
current events.

- 9
 I believe what today passes as scientific approach to
economics and social reconstruction is no more than a
pseudo-science. It is quite sterile and it can even be
misleading for those who study such works. A study of
economics and a true sociology, to be relevant to our time
cannot bypass the need of occupying itself with the primary
facets and forces active behind the veil of the historically
grown forms; and these primary entities are of course the
human beings and their present (not past) faculties actual or
potential; their present longings and needs, whether actual or
potential.

To summarise, science and scientific attitude made valid in

relation to the Natural World is operative in such a manner
that it leads man's mind, as it were, from the Outer
Semblance to an Inner Connection pattern.

The same science and the same scientific attitude when

however related to human affairs and economics are bound to
take the exactly opposite course: from an INWARDS
observation and recognition, science is seeking its way
OUTWARDS, it is to find and shape the SEMBLANCE in the
world of actions and circumstances.
Once we fully and wholly accept this fundamental difference
in a genuinely scientific re-examination of the issues of our
time then we shall also more fully appreciate the way in which
Mr. Ward∗ has tried to look below the surface of the day-to-
day experience in the sphere of working life. Certainly to
acquaint oneself with these new elements of a view it needs
∗
Mr. William Ward, who has addressed the audience on the
preceding day.

- 10
 patience and an inner re-adjustment. But it is the inner re-
adjustment of the FOCUS of our attention which does lead to
inner law zones from which eventually suggestions for an
outer re-ordering of our social and economic relationships can
evolve with confidence. This kind of confidence can then be
compared with that of the inventive engineer who from
knowledge of the laws of nature envisages his first
experiments; his device compositions may be initially
imperfect, yet he knows they can be steadily improved
because the principles made operative are real and sound.

Mr Ward's three preceding addresses (Introduction, Labour

and the Right's Life, Capital and Cultural Activities) have
already disclosed the presence of a usually unobserved factor
in the normal working life of people. He asserts that in the
working process there is active a law of action and reaction.
Not only does the hand lift weights, move substances,
components, etc. in an ordered context and within an
intelligent, orderly pattern of co-operative activity
(production), but also, this relationship has also an effect on
the talents and more general constitution of the person
concerned.

This engenders a capability growth which remains dormant

and unused and unobserved; nevertheless it is there and at a
certain stage it does press for a connection with a human
unfolding; it urges namely to link up more directly with the
personality of its bearer and to become a power element for
its bearer’s progress and advancement.

This impulse does make itself felt among the working people
more often than one surmises but is rather misapprehended
and can be seen to be guided into exclusively economic

- 11
 demands. We are not concerned here with economic demands
which of course may be justified on their own grounds, or
perhaps not justified, but we are concerned with the extra
energy with which they are often defended to the point of
irrationality, in face of national economic realities.

From repeatedly enacted and experienced work disciplines

arise thus incipient faculties in the worker, faculties that
from hidden ranges press for a link-up with personality
development processes.

But this potency is denied an opportunity for deliberate

promotion and individualisation, for no other reason but lack
of recognition and lack of time and adequate occasion! In our
present civilisation there is no room for this.

Let us consider a car worker; his job may be to cast liquid

steel into forms. His shift may begin at 8 am and he travels 40
minutes from his home to the factory. In the morning he has
a quick wash, he listens to the 7 o'clock news at breakfast,
exchanges a few words with his wife about plans for the
evening, kisses his son goodbye and is off on his journey.

At work his attention is given to his duties, during tea breaks

he chats with fellow workers and makes a few jokes, or is
called to the manager to report on some problem. Dependent
on the character of his work he will be familiar with it in a
more or less dreamy rhythm, or meet it with more selective
and responsive performances. Then comes knocking off time;
he will commence his journey home.

His family awaits him back for evening meal; also he wants to
do some gardening afterwards, or meet a friend in a pub, or

- 12
 he may wish to see a boxing match on the TV tonight having
invited some neighbours as well - This generally speaking, is
the cyclic flow of life for the worker. There may be exceptions
due to overtime working, due to making plans for the summer
holidays, due to personal problems with relatives.

What has been described is thus a healthy rhythm between

the poles of work and leisure, or better Work and Family. This
duality is, a force from which few individual characters wish to
escape, or feel a clear urge for seeking a third element in
which the privacy of their person can thrive. However when
this is present the escape urge is disruptive to the congenial
polarised settings of work and family, and it may instead of
leading to a constructive phase in a person's history often lead
to an undermining and chaotizing influence on it.

Clearly what is needed is - besides a time space for work and

duty, and a time space for the family setting - a further time
space specific to the activation of talents dormant in an
individual, and today doomed to remain dormant for ever
unless such specific time space is deliberately created.

The need for such third space in the social context was
perhaps not always so obvious in the past. Through the factor
of sleep a person could regain a measure of identity with his
personality; sleep, day by day, helped the person to remain
himself or herself in face of or in spite of the day’s events.
This was previously more or less equivalent to a replenishing
of his or her health and formative image constitution. The
latter asserts itself in an ability to sense one's personality
quasi-instinctively.

- 13
 In a prevalently agricultural setting of past centuries, but also
in the city settings of the past, the pressure of impressions
from outer events was comparatively moderate and, through
sleep restoration, a person could always deal with them.
In modern times there are two aspects which are different.
The influences that come from outside are more on a
conscious level than before. Secondly their frequency is
greater and what we call "news" is often so interesting, luring
and absorbing, that less and less time is left even to reflect
whether to accept or to reject them.

This situation leads to the conclusion that to re-establish the

balance we should look for something like a SECOND ZONE
OF SLEEP within the 24 hour cycle. Just as ordinary sleep
generates a radical separation from the current of outer life
and during that separation restorative work is done on body
and soul at a subconscious level, so a second zone of sleep
(figuratively speaking) would have to give opportunity for the
more conscious agent in man to acquire for itself an
assurance or token of its own identity and from that
assurance it would gain strength for, and a relationship to, all
other activities.

At the moment we are talking only in principles and not in

details. Let us picture how this conscious quasi-sleep period
would produce a modification of the natural day-night rhythm,
and leisure-work rhythm.

- 14
 Fig. 1 Idealised Representation of Daily Cyclic Experiences
During Working Week
(a = as at present, b = as proposed)

- 15
 You could ask: "... and this you expect an ordinary worker to
develop for himself?" The answer is almost every human
being can to some extent make first tentative steps towards a
self-examination and greater awareness of his original
leanings even if that may go back to his distant youth. Some
steps towards a recovery of oneself can be taken or at least
be contemplated by any person. However, the eventual actual
steps may best be selected in consultation with an advisor.
Let us for a moment presume that such advisors are available.
One would expect such an advisor to become acquainted with
the worker concerned, with his specific strains in the
individuality. The worker aided by the advisor will feel himself
forward towards a path of increasingly individual activation of
the person's independent, freedom-based, interest
relationship with the world. That may include attention to
previously non-existent interests.

One should not underestimate the importance of such an

endeavour in any theory or practice that makes social
renascence its aim. Since whatever else you might
contemplate as factors contributing to such a reform or
renewal of our social political and economic practices, nothing
would be gained unless these improvements were willed by
the people from the depths of their own personalities, and not
perhaps as a consequence of some political or religious
hypnosis or group ecstasy. In the silence and even initial
impotence of a quite personal searching for a way to a
meaningful contact with the world there can, in our modern
times, be seen a genuine basis and cornerstone of any future
order.

- 16
 Once this cornerstone is there, a trend of development is
started and made mobile in people. This trend will need
changing relationships in the outer world, too.

Let us summarise how far we have got until now. In

performing the appointed works effort, man interacts with
substances and operational performances. These, as well as
the works man-to-man contact in the course of duty, react on
the worker and plant in him experience potencies. In order to
make these valid within the worker as an individual person,
this individual person himself must be able to react and for
this a space is needed within the works situation which is not
predetermined by Management but, as far as the influences of
works duties on the one hand and home life on the other
hand are concerned, occupy intermediate positions between
the two poles, and may be regarded as "silent zones", that is,
free from the dominating influence of the said two fields of
engagement. One may also describe them as zones of
conscious sleep.

Before moving on, I will mention that, in my opinion - once

the Free Space activities or 'works club activities' are
established in an industrial enterprise, these would not
necessarily be always limited to regularly repeated periods of
private efforts, namely periods inducing conditions of a
“creative solitude”.
At such times there may, for a change, be held social events
more accessible to the whole working community, or to
several smaller groups. It may be expected that such events
would be planned by the committee of advisors together with
representatives of the staff and management of the firm. In
this way a remarkable film may be shown, or a noteworthy
speaker would be invited to address the whole of the works

- 17
 community. In such instances, the time period(s) normally set
aside for individual efforts on a voluntary basis (of course),
would be occupied by the collective experience of an event
brought into the works community.

Social interest and communication with other people – those

are the key words for our next consideration.

What do we awaken in people during the "Free Space" activity

characterised here? A discovery, a living discovery of their
own originating contact-making power with realms of beings
and motives. What they, in their dialogues with the advisors,
or in their monologues with themselves, resolve become an
embarking point for their personal endeavour, engendered in
themselves by themselves.

This taking hold of motive aspects is equivalent to a releasing

of the force of idealism from the slavish attachment of
interests circumscribed by the concrete situation of one's
"smaller household".

The time- and situation- bound "SMALLER HOUSEHOLD" is

then transcended and, out of a much wider human
perspective, a selection is made for the attaining of a personal
skill or for looking into some field of study. Making decisions
of this kind ripens out a new dimension of will forces, making
them capable, and not merely in relation to one's person, but
in due course also in relation to other person's situations.

One will gradually acquire a feeling and concern for the

destiny situation of the fellow man.

I suppose it is not difficult to see: that which has initially a

- 18
 quasi-egotistic aspect and has the individualisation of the ego
forces as a first consequence, may become the very source
and soil for a genuine and capable capacity for altruistic
seeing or, let us rather call it: a capacity for transformation
motives directed towards the LARGER HOUSEHOLD and
welfare of humanity, as distinct from the private or family
household of a person (SMALLER HOUSEHOLD).

The new ability and surplus reserve for looking into the world
and for seeing everywhere in the present conditions sprouting
points for a further unfolding, and for raising in one's moral
imagination specific steps towards promoting such unfolding
and transformation … that would be a direct consequence of
the "FREE SPACE ACTIVITIES" within the context of daily
work. This is not to say that even today there are not many
people who have this ability and urge as an inborn disposition.

We have now to face a very important fact. This just

characterised incipient capacity has no social instrument of
expression. This lack would become many times more evident
if we imagined that the "FREE SPACE ACTIVITIES" were more
widely introduced.

Looking at the institutions and facilities which present life has

developed for the various needs of man it can be felt as a
momentous and most remarkable fact that an eminently social
vein in the human being, namely that which by its very nature
can bring two or more people into a harmony of PURPOSE
and UNDERSTANDING for a good and necessary deed in their
common "GREATER HOUSEHOLD", has no proper instrument
for expression; it is faced with a complete blank, and our
social and economic practices give no tangible leverage in
support of the above described impulse. True, there are the

- 19
 manifold Media, but what appears in them is, in the given
circumstances, no more than "blue air", - simply because
there is no support element for any personal resolve such as
may arise in you, to do something about the subject matter.
Is not this a challenge to fundamental thought in all of us?
Unfortunately, most of us are only too ready to pass
unfriendly comment, and even enjoy doing so because it is
non-committal. How would your opinion be if you were
inescapably linked to the person or to the effort or its
product? I believe this situation is ultimately affected by the
role of money. Money is the form in which people receive a
title to the gross national product, to the community's goods
and services.

Generally speaking, INCOME - if it is company income - is

divided up into two parts, salaries and distributable profits
on the one hand, and then reserves. The directors convert
their reserves into capital by associating with reserve means
their managerial or creative ideas. In this way they utilise the
fixed capital of the firm, labour power, and liquid capital
(namely the said spare money PLUS their ideas) to strengthen
and expand the enterprise led by them. And then, of course,
each director also has a personal income in return for his
services to the company.

From these very elementary facts we can see clearly that a

particular section of society, namely those who play a
directive role in the world of economic enterprise, do in fact
have TWO KINDS of title to resources whereby they can give
sway and expression to TWO SIDES in their human nature.
The first one is the personal salary which each can devote to
their family and personal household interests. The second one
is the company owned reserves to which they, as directors,

- 20
 can apply the motives of their minds and spirits and, in doing
so, convert them into "capital", into action contributing to a
raising of the status or of the prospects of their economic
venture, in one way or another.

Let us look at this relationship in diagrammatic presentation.

See Fig. 2.

Now let us compare with this a diagrammatic presentation of

the ordinary wage or salary earner.

See fig. 3.

See Fig. 4. and Fig. 5.

What we must now begin to add is:

The focus centre of the altruistic capacity in man is something
real, something that belongs to his greater being as man. As
long as this focus is only in its potential seed form, and
prevented through lack of a social medium from blossoming
out and from seeking communion of thought and purpose
with other men, so long will also a vital potency of the human
existence be suppressed and choked. This killing of one
aspect in man creates an unhealthy lack of

- 21
 Fig. 2 Higher Management Executives and Directors have in
effect two forms of personal income.

- 22
 Fig. 3 Only one form of income to the wage or salary earner

Fig. 4 The missing element in the income of most persons

- 23
 Fig. 5 A diagramatic presentation for the proposed complete
income structure for wage - and salary earning persons.

- 24
 balance in his life. It is like expecting an aeroplane with only
one wing to fly. Those having a powerful engine would try
and take off but would soon be entangled in distortion and
disaster.

And that is, I venture to suggest, the face shown to us by the

student violence and mass protests today springing from a
deeply dissatisfied sentiment and vague sense of frustration.∗

Indeed the forces centre of which we here speak is a reality,

and because it is a reality it requires a share in the total social
product of production, in other words a title to goods and
services generated by the whole community. This means that
this other focus would also be an earner of money.

But, money within the field of the "GREATER HOUSEHOLD"

has quite a different behaviour and function pattern as
compared with money within the field force of the smaller or
private household.

It cannot be regarded at all as spendable EXCEPT in

association with an ideal thought configuration giving it a
spending direction.

Moreover, because thought knows no frontiers, the ideal

element in it can be shared by other people and SEVERAL
persons may combine to give money reserves a desired or
necessary effect.

For this reason I propose to give this new money element the
name "CAPITAL FRAGMENT". By itself it is no more than a
∗
This was a lecture given in 1968

- 25
 fragment in the hands of an isolated person, like the iron
particle in an amorphous heap of iron dust. If then into it
enters a magnetic field -- in our case a social and altruistic
thought - they order themselves along the field forces and
assume shape and direction.

We are all so used to looking at money as a monolithic entity

that the idea of TWO MONEYS, two income forms, may seem
odd in the beginning. But I am sure, after further
consideration you will concede that our present financial and
social techniques are in need of such a development of
money.

The total income of a person must be seen to be composed of

an income element of his private existence, and of another
income element exclusively available to the direction of his or
her responsive and enquiring mind. As we have seen, this
state of affairs is already basically satisfied with
respect to the directors of companies, but much less
so for the executives, and not at all for the rest of the
salary and wage earners.

Our age strives for the basic equality of all men as an aspect
of justice, but it is strange that the most important injustice,
the absence of an income-element for each person's nature to
the extent that it is a creatively responsible thinking and
feeling creature, has escaped the attention of social
reformers. With the gradual introduction of a twofold wages
system this inequality will disappear.

If taken on its own, this sentence may be objected to on the

grounds that intelligence and feeling participate in any
selective purchasing transaction, and therefore there is no

- 26
 need for an “income-element for each person’s nature to the
extent as it is a creatively responsible thinking and feeling
creature”. While this would seem a fair argument, the point
here is that intelligence and feeling, apart from being
capacities which act “on behalf of” desires and consumer
needs of a person, may also reach a certain independence
and maturity and thus advance from being a mere
mouthpiece of needs (shelter, clothing, food) or of desires
(love of comfort, ambitions, hobby for travelling) to become
sense organs and mouthpieces of the non-bodily based,
humanity-related attention within one’s personality. To that
attention, the social wage or capital fragment essentially
belongs.

See Fig. 6.

The fact that the structure of income both of directors and of

wage earners becomes a twofold one in the sense described
does not imply that wage earners would be responsible for
the ownership of the firms or share automatically in
management. We do not believe this shortcut would represent
a right evolutionary trend. This would be no more than the
idea of the collective ownership of the means of production
which really puts the cart before the horse, the special before
the general from which it is derived, mere means before the
living status which can decide to create them. Moreover the
idea of the "collective" ownership of the "means" of
production lacks the sense of evolutionary differentiation. This
differentiation would be choked by trying to draw all the
people into the concern for the management of production
and economic growth. As we see it the p r i m a r y creative
field of management is: economic enterprise; and the p r i m

- 27
 a r y creative field of the employed people is: social or human
enterprise.

- 28
 Fig. 6 The sphere of social wage spending blossoming up
above the world of commerce. (a symbolic presentation)

- 29
 The collective effort of production in which both top
management and employed people are engaged together is at
the same time the process which, on the one hand, yields
value for the market (value for the world community) and, on
the other hand "initially non-committed surplus values" for
management and workers. This surplus value is, on the one
hand, transformed by the application of management
expertise and foresight into a strengthening of the economic
enterprise, and, on the other hand, through the application of
free human thought and associative spending of the "capital
fragment wages" by the employees, into human enterprise
values.

This twofold and differentiated fulfilment may be referred to

graphically in the following way:

See Fig. 7.

The reader will note the basic symmetry of the diagram in

that there are two instruction feedback lines, namely one from
the employer’s economic responsibility going to the employees
(as works orders) and, a path of instruction from the social
responsibility range of the employed, to the employer. The
diagram does not give any comment on this feature, and as
this may give rise to diverse interpretations, a few words
should be said about the concrete meaning of that employees
–-- employer instruction line.

The diagram, namely, would be misleading if one read

“WORKS” as meaning a single works unit. Since – as far as
the instruction line going to the employers is concerned - we
do not envisage that such instruction would, as a rule, arise

- 30
 and take effect within a single business or works unit. This
instruction line arises rather, as a consequence of the social
wage spending directives of the employees of many firms as
described on page ## . Spending directives associated
with employees’ pooled social wages are first digested
and re-shaped by planning contractors and consulting
experts; these firms would place their works orders with
various companies who, of course, are the employers of
people. The employers in this context, are no more than the
executive means for realising projects of employees, of
wage earning people.

Concerning fig. 7 it can therefore be said that it is not

misleading provided one keeps in mind the considerable
round-about way by which the employees’ social conscience
re-appears as an instruction to employers.∗

A common interest of directors and workers is assured

precisely by the full opportunity for realisation of different
interests. Not by abstract economic involvement therefore but
via the enkindling of social-cultural concerns in the employed
people, one will be free to enlist a full measure of co-
operation in industry.

The "SOCIAL CAPITAL FRAGMENT" income is not a phoney

concept such as the collective ownership idea; it will be
something real to the wage earner, namely the income of the
Spirit of the wage earning person and would be paid from a
share title in the firm's annual profits (after distribution of the
rightful dividends to investors and interest on loans to
bankers).

∗
See also Part II of this booklet, pages ##

- 31
 Fig. 7 Industry at the Intersection of the Two Lines of
Enterprise

- 32
 Today (this referred to the years 1950 - 1970) the British
worker is slow in turning a sympathetic ear to a veritable
cataract of exhortations, to abandon restrictive practices, to
show patriotic restraint in wage demands, to improve
productivity.
In the outlined new circumstances, the psychological premises
would be given to change this thoroughly.

To make clear without a shadow of doubt what the essence of

the new conditions would be, let us look once more at a
diagrammatic representation of the spending structure of
income derived from co-operative work and the basic equality
in this respect of directors, (or director-owners) and employed
people.

See Fig. 8.

The ratio of the 'capital fragment wage', also named social

wage by us, to the normal "consumer wage" would be quite
small, say 1:20. In a minor city with a working population of
say 25,000 people this can nevertheless amount to a
respectable aggregate of altruistic-idealistic spending power.
So the second focus in man is no longer in the cold.
And being no longer in the cold it will develop little flames of
concern and interest here and there. Once such interests
develop, you promote the power for idealistic motivation in
man - not in the abstract of course, but in relation to quite
specific objects - and once that sets in, the possibility is there
for drawing even the "consumer income" of a person into this
zone of interest and willing.

- 33
 This will happen for the sake of special cases were the need is
great.

A word of caution.
_________________
We should have no illusions, however, concerning that which
we have called the "Potential Focus Centre within human
nature for the Altruistic Capacity", namely the capacity for
enterprise within the "GREATER HOUSEHOLD". For it is only
potential and not at all real in most people today and, where
it does exist, it is often subject to wild and erratic influences
from political and radical currents. There may be a danger in
unleashing the scope and opportunity for social wages
spending before the inborn capacity for altruistic concern has
properly and solidly taken root in the individual personality
and has found some connection within its own intimate
experience and sober judgement. This brings us home to the
overriding importance of activities which the individual would
unfold "in zones of free space activities" through himself, and
by himself alone (except when at times assisted by an
advisor). This recognition brings us now full circle back to Mr
Ward's expositions and to his indication for the need of a
"donation of a space and time good" to the working people.
Let us try to draw out how this concept of his would relate to
industry and commerce, on the one hand, and to family,
family household and leisure activities on the other hand.

See Fig. 9

When looking at the graphic representation you may say:

"We understand the merit of providing the work force with a
"silent space" where individuals after the work shift may go,

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 and where they are free from the pull of the work place and
the family respectively, in short where they can be

Fig. 8 Combined diagram,

illustrating how on one hand normal industrial investment
creates the means for establishing new jobs for the
unemployed and, on the other hand, pooled "social wages"
(also referred to as capital fragments) are used by the
employed sector of the economy for engaging unemployed (or
under-employed) talent among the population to realise
projects important to them.

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 Fig. 9 Influence Lines around the Poles of Work and Leisure,
the Space for the Individual being in a balanced zone.

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 themselves or talk to advisors concerning the building stones
in terms of thoughts or image concepts. But we cannot
understand how this psychological provision has anything to
do with the creation of entrepreneurial capital. Moreover how
can people who earn their living in a factory and are proficient
in their jobs but have perhaps neither time nor aptitude in
developing amateur interests, suddenly promote and direct
"greater household gift spending" as you call it? Even if it
were possible, would not this be letting loose dilettantism in
all fields?

My answer to this would be: As to your first objection, I agree

with you fully: There is no direct linkage at all between the
'silent zone' proposal and the formation of pooled 'capital
fragments'. However, indirect links do exist. Let me remind
you that only a person who can observe his or her own
behaviour impartially can realistically judge others and other's
situations, problems, and indicate remedies. Concerning your
fear that this will lead to diversion from workers' attention to
their job duties, one can but follow up what would actually
happen by considering an example. Assume there is a
particular person, he is a member of a factory team; he has
an unfortunate relative in a mental hospital. He visits him or
her at times and he is appalled by the atmosphere and
conditions there. He is strongly moved and he tells his work
colleagues about it. They resolve to pool their social wage
part of their income and perhaps even some of their private
incomes on top of it to create a fund from which they would
be able in due course to rebuild the hospital after their own
ideas. Good. That is a concrete case such as may happen in
actuality. But, how in all the world could these workers

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 competently do such a job or even find the time for it? There
is nothing to worry about. These good fellows who in their
moral fantasy develop ideas for a new and better hospital are
no more, nor less, than what in earlier centuries the
entrepreneur-aristocrats were. Those too, were no experts in
the works they built; they issued their general intentions and
handed their projects to agencies and contractors. Similarly,
pooled social wages together with outline directives and
specifications will go to EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATIONS of experts
and professional people who from their more profound
backgrounds will take up the laymen impulse and translate it
into the best possible reality. I should like to point out that
practices of this kind do already exist, and they have been
developed in great detail by Co-operative Housing
associations advising and managing self-build projects. What
is going on there in relation to co-operative home-building
could largely be adapted to "greater household spending
instructions" in many fields. Accordingly, those of the
employees who have pooled social wages for contributing to
the rebuilding of a hospital would not be expected to organise
a Contracting Office. They will instruct a licensed department
of, say a building co-operative to take this in hand. This office
will prepare a memorandum reflecting the wishes of the Social
Wage Directives in greater detail. They will invite such
associations as the Medical Society to comment, confer with
architects and builders, and finally instruct an architect, or a
specially formed group of architects, to produce final drawings
and estimates.

In the process, modifications of the original concept of the

initiators of the project may have to be made and they would
be invited by the local county council etc. instead to join a
larger project with their contributions. Or, the cost is higher

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 than anticipated and to meet it the original proponents would
send information material to other factories in the area
inviting those working there to donate some of their capital
fragment income to their cause. When eventually adequate
contributions are secured the Contracting Office of the
commissioned architects will take all the steps needed to
realise the project. All wage earners who have subscribed a
part or all of their social wage income for a period, would
receive regular progress reports and would be allowed site
inspection and checks of financial spending.

All this seems to me within the realms of real possibility.

Apart from the useful results achievable in this way there is
also a most important by-product of this activity of social
wage spending: The Enhancement of a Sense of Proportion
between Private need and Social need'.

Please, also note the difference between a Bank advancing

money, and the voluntary spending of social wage money by
the workers. The former is advanced against interest. The
latter is free of interest. A bank must be paid interest precisely
because, as an institution, it stands aloof from any specific
purpose, there is no human interest in the objectives of a
loan. When wage earners on the other hand, spend social
wages, they are concerned, and therefore personally
interested; precisely for this reason, no interest payment is
required.
There is of course the even more obvious difference between
a Bank Loan and the Creative Social Wage Spending by
employees: The bank not only receives interest, but the loan
itself is repayable over a period.
Employees on the other hand, who pool their capital
fragments with fellow employees (be it of the same firm or of

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 other firms), in order to sponsor a specific social / economic
operation, receive nothing back and receive no interest either.
Nor is this necessary: the reward for doing something right is
necessarily more long-term than a simple purchasing action,
but is bound to appear in one form or another, sooner or
later, also in the environment and the life of the sponsor.

The present system of relying heavily on loan finance is an

inflationary factor. In modern times there are bound to be
projects where profitability is small, such as in municipal and
social projects, or of long-term character, if evaluated in
financial terms (although often of very immediate value if
evaluated in human terms). There is no adequate machinery
today for financing such projects except through loans or
taxation, both of which exert inflationary pressure on the
economy.

We enter with these considerations, for the first time, into the
economic field proper and in relation to this let me comment
as follows. A very large part of all constructive work is
financed by Bank Loan or loans from Insurance Societies or by
Investment. They all draw interest. This need is a lure for
placing resources in the form of loans or investment
generating unearned income. In the aggregate this
constitutes a drag on the economy and is one of the causes of
inflation. Our present economies are in a sense "interest-
ridden". Taxes seem to be free income to the state or local
government administrations, but in reality when taxation rises
it is usually accompanied by a determination to raise prices to
compensate for any loss in earnings; this in turn induces wage
demands. Therefore, if Government spending must cover all
the developing social needs and taxation is high it has an
effect quite similar to high interest rates.

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 Into this welter of an interest-ridden economy will enter the
social wage creation of capital as a relief by reducing the
competition for loan and investment money from persons and
institutions who offer "disinterested money". ("Disinterested
money", as already explained, demands high interests since
this is the only compensation it gets for helping something in
which it is not interested).

The social pooling of "capital fragment" income will be an

instrument for the informed application of altruistic interests
to the needs of society, near and far, and will thus gradually
substitute, or at least complete the functions of the
investment markets and Government spending.

Because of this potentially powerful role which the social

wage creation of capital may in due course play, it is useful to
gain a clear view about the manner in which the company
activities and company monetary reforms could be related to
society at large.

See Fig. 10

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 Fig. 10 Legal, economic and cultural Interface zones in a
“Greater Household” economy.

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 Brief Description of Figure 10

1. The innermost circle is a blank white disc

representing the voice of conscience in every
person.

2. The surrounding blue ring stands for the concepts

and ideas arising from the force of the conscience
or from the counsel of ‘Advisors’.

3. The surrounding red ring indicates those concepts

being taken up into the will life of a person.

4. The pink zone is where creative ideas applied to

the situations of others are expressed in concrete
terms and discussed on the basis of future ‘social
wages’ entitlements becoming available.

5. The yellow zone is where the sum total of

proposals are sifted and integrated into fewer
projects with the aid of experts.

6. The green ring symbolises the commercial and

industrial services range, including the special
consultant and contract firms who, financed by
the pooled social wages of the workers, have
signed executive obligations for realising definite
project descriptions.

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 7. Surrounding the green ring is the whole world of
publicity and public assessment, in short, the
expression of what people think is fair, equitable
and just. This has a bearing on the behaviour in
business.

8. The outer ring stands for the Forum of Parliament

where the aforementioned ‘life of rights’ becomes
vocal, and where any new common denominators
are formally approved.

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 The diagram speaks for itself. The following brief references
should suffice.

The blue area in the centre stands for the "FREE SPACE AND
TIME ELEMENT" in the locations of working life, and more
especially it stands for the Unfolding Freedom of the Person at
such locations. This, at first, is not related to economics but
has a personal character and is rather related to science
and/or culture. A Council of Advisors, Educators and
occasional Volunteer Instructors may try to assist as best as
they can.
When the light blue centre gets stronger and vocal it develops
a more vivid give and take of interest and discussion with
fellow men, (small red ring), a truly social element which will
also participate in the facts and needs of a wider world. The
places where the wider interests are fostered would be
company -and village clubs: this is indicated by the pink or
peach coloured zone outside the red one. At the periphery of
the pink zone, as it were take place the joining up of social
wage parts around selected motives of spending brought to
the Forum of the works and village clubs. What emerge from
there for society are capital-loaded creative instructions.
These are received by groups of professionally working
consultants, sometimes by professional societies and
associations, and contractor associations in various
purpose-moulded mixtures. This sphere is indicated by the
yellow area. Here the impulses coming from the pink sphere
are digested and expertly prepared in plans. The green ring is
the economic sphere of commerce and industry proper which
in turn receives the plans and contracts for their execution.
However what is being done in the economy and indeed in all
other parts of society must be related to national and social

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 conscience. (Light-violet zone). More generally still, it must
have a relationship to a focus of conscience, and that is the
forum of elected representatives in Parliament. (Purple ring).
The light violet zone inside, stands for the whole popular life
of rights relationships controversies and researches relating to
the finding of the right approach and of the formulation of the
law.

The manifestation of action in the economic sphere (green

ring) has therefore an interface with different spheres on two
sides: from the centre via the professional associations it
receives impulses and instructions for new activities, and from
outside as it were, it is conditioned and modified by the life of
the rights conscience and ultimately by Parliament.

What one sometimes calls spiritual works, or the sphere of

spiritual life, can in this context not be recognised to be
anything else but the whole reservoir of abilities and faculties
in all people, be they mental or physical, and which are
particularly pointed to assist the common man in his
becoming. Spirit is noted only where it is helped to come into
being, that is, applied to the small white area in the centre, in
the "FREE SPACE and TIME GOOD" made available to the
working population. Of course, intelligence and ingenuity
manifests itself in many ways also, for example, in the yellow
area (consultants and professional groupings) but this is
already a secondary consequence of "spirit".

One could talk about many consequences of the "social wage"

or capital-fragment wage. One such consequence I should
mention before concluding. It is that people in the neighbour-
hoods and people working side by side in the offices and
shops are likely to become vocal and more outspoken in

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 relation to specific issues and through this will discover in
each other more of their real persons in their fellowmen,
something of the width and underlying seriousness and
unexpected perspectives or depths of their personalities.
Before and up to now, they may have been working together
for years, exchanged jokes and discussed irrelevant matters
or the weather but hardly ever got really through the skin of
formality. When controversial matters of social wage spending
will come into the group the true character of thinking and
reacting to life problems will begin to reveal itself by, and to,
each person, and people will get ideally more perceptive of
each other, see new sides of each other. Such a change
would be good for the dynamics of a true democracy.

Let me read to you what GDH Cole says about this aspect in
his "Essays in Social Theory" (pages 99-101, and page 103
top).
Now, what is said here comes quite close to the pedagogic
background of the social wages principle. Cole the English
economist and social theorist perceives that "the very
hugeness of the ocean shall become a bridge for the human
spirit". It is in the nature of the social wage that it is a bridge
@@between the small isolated person and the separating
'hugeness of the ocean'. In this way this ocean becomes a
heaving and bearing force for the human spirit. However,
probably unlike Cole, we believe that not the state but the
sound commonsense of people can introduce what is needed
today. You will find that Rudolph Steiner has said in his book,
The Threefold Social Order, page 68: "People learned to think
about capitalism when it had induced a disease in the body
social. They experience the disease and see that something
must be done about it. But they must see more, namely that
the disease originates in the absorption into the economic

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 circuit of the forces at work in capital. If one wants to work in
the direction called for by the forces of human evolution, one
must not be deluded into considering as 'impractical idealism'
the idea that the management of capital should be in the
sphere of the free spiritual life".

A beginning in the direction here indicated can best be made

we believe, where 'capital' is most fluid, where it is indeed still
in the status nascendi, namely where ideas combine with
resources in general to assume the function of capital. It is
with this particular phase in the life cycle of capital that a
sphere of spiritual life would combine, rooted in the 'Free
Space Activities' of the wage earners and in their
opportunities of directing their capital fragments to socially
pooled expenditures

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 PART II. COMMENTARIES

A. The problem of the “Double Lemniscate”

Are all Double-Loop Lemniscates -- a Symbol of Evil?

A few weeks after William Ward and I had delivered our

speeches in the Arts School of Balham, Surrey, I met one
of the gentlemen who were present at the event, in his
elegant Kensington flat to elicit his reaction to the ideas
we presented. Whereas the reception was friendly and
cordial, he said something that hit me right into the face,
right into the very core of my intent. Not long after we
began talking he said: "You know, in our circle we view
the double lemniscate which you drew on the blackboard
as an indication for evil tendencies (See Figure 1b), as a
form for evil forces. For this reason it is difficult to have
sympathy for your concepts (or something to this
effect)". After that we also discussed other aspects of
Mr. Ward's and my talk.

I did not know how to respond to his basic objection. I

had no intention to deviate from the way I described the
theoretical part of my explanations. In drawing the
double-lemniscate figure (Fig. 1b) I followed my
technical education in supporting ideas by geometric
figures such as explain the functional forces at work.

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 As I am re-editing my speech today, I strongly felt I
have to address the critical remark of the gentleman of
nearly 35 years ago. During all this time, I felt quite
indifferent about it as if it had been said merely out of a
superstitious mental framework.
But n o w, I h a d finally to assess whether that remark
has had any realistic relevance, or not!
To my own astonishment, I found it has tremendous
relevance, but this gives me additional reasons to
persist. Let me explain:
It is natural to man to yearn for experiences that endows
them with an intensified feeling of being alive. It is
therefore no wonder - especially in view of a receding
community life and a rather bleak, mechanised work
situation - when many a person is drawn to ally itself
with habit-forming, purely ego-centric occasions which
overstrain their sensibilities or submerge them in toxic
involvement of their own organisms. There is no doubt
that the desire to tangible sense experience can be
multiplied by exposing the human organism to
destructive influences, and thereby become directly
opposed to the role of sleep in human life. Describing
these recurring excesses as an evil is entirely correct
because they estrange man from himself and from his
higher mission to learn from his or her life on Earth.
Each one of these evil leanings can be symbolically
represented in form of a double loop life cycle wherein
the lower loop period of Sleep appears as the good force
and the upper loop as a destructive force. I would have
no difficulty in drawing double loop lemniscates wherein
this opposition to the role of 'sleep' (pages # and #)

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 becomes perfectly clear. Draw into the upper loop all the
possible forms of vicious habits such as alcoholism, drug
abuse, excesses of sport, a sickly love of music,
talkativeness, greed, etc. etc. and there is no doubt that
the gentleman of 35 years ago was right. The sub-
human forces are indeed quite strong and are all
opposed to the role of sleep. So, here we are, but what
is it that my essay wished to point out? That there can
be incarnated in the "evil form" of the double lemniscate
a faithful friend of the force of Sleep, and reinforce
the experience of living without having to de-sensitise
the delicate sense organs; and, that there can be a
rejuvenating element in 'a double-lemniscate daily cycle'
and successfully gain ascendancy over the evil trends in
our social and private relationships. When namely, the
'conscious sleep phase' is realised and when that is done
recurrently as a free function of one's Conscience, it can
be considered an effective anti-dot to quite a number of
the evil tendencies. In that sense it is supportive to the
role of Sleep.

ConScience means, "to become aware, with the help of

n e w information, logically related to the rest of our
knowledge.

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 B. The problem of overcoming managerial inertia

The customary excuse for not trying out innovative steps

is, lack of competent staff, lack of allocated resources,
lack of space. Yet, it can be shown that most enterprises
with more than thirty employees already have

(a) at least one information board in each works division

(b) an internal mail box which workers and staff may use
to bring suggestions before Management
(c) most firms also operate a profit sharing scheme
based on a distribution once a year

Figure 11 illustrates these circumstances. It also teaches

that in most cases, the infra-structure already exists for
expanding the relevant activities into new areas, namely
those which this booklet suggests.

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 Fig. 11 Showing that the institutional arrangements in a
majority of companies today are entirely sufficient for
expanding their given structures into a complete
community organism such as described herein.

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 C. Questions and Answers (An extract)

In an environment where a company pays "social

wages", also called "capital fragments" to staff and
workers, a certain amount of support activities cannot be
avoided.
For example, there would be "upgrading meetings".
There would be also "Social Wages Alignment
Discussions".
When the rules are written, one of the questions will be:
Can a fellow worker who earns social wage certificates
resist pressure from his co-employees to spend his share
or is that employee justified in declaring that he wishes
to hold on to his title and make no allocation? What is
the relationship between projects arising from the grass
roots, and those which the local village council or a
neighbouring city council desires to develop?
What is the role of the community Consultants? What is
the responsibility of the Expert Firms who are
commissioned by the project leader to lead whatever
construction, etc. is involved? All these, are questions
that must be clarified.
In the past I have had very useful correspondence with a
person in New York. Hereunder follow abbreviated
extracts from that correspondence, and
I would encourage the Reader to come up with
observations or questions of his (her) own.
___________

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 Sources for paying social wages cheques.

We believe it would be equitable that those companies

who have instituted the "twofold wages" system are
granted a reduction in taxation.
A second source should be a share in the distributable
profit of the company. There can be envisaged also a
third source which would take longer to explain
convincingly.

Can an employee receive "social spending rights

i.e. cheques", but indefinitely wait committing his
share to a current project?

We recommend that each employee should have at least

two years to think about a best way of spending his gift
money spending. He or she should also have opportunity
for explaining wishes and principles that motivate him or
her.
However, a cut-off time is needed after which the
employee concerned should be obliged to return the
certificate or cheque to the company augmenting
thereby the corporate profit and the taxes payable
thereon.

Social Wages Alignment Discussions.

These negotiations will allow several projects similar in

nature to aggregate. These discussions may also help to

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 increase the orbit of participating members. In some
cases, an intelligent fusion with Municipal projects can be
envisaged.
When these talks have matured, participation of 'expert
companies' will help to make the plans concrete to the
point when formal tenders may be invited.
This process can be furthered and speeded up by making
use of internet transmission of proposed project
specifications.

Who does the monitoring of the assigned

projects?

The monitoring would be unloaded entirely upon the

advisory and executive firms whose tenders had been
accepted by the Project Group. The original project
members will, however, nominate one of their ranks who
will have the contractual right to make enquiries, and to
which all contractors and sub-contractors involved will
have a duty to answer truthfully.
Therefore, adequate feedback will reach the original
project members.

What happens when there is a financial shortfall?

In this case the original sponsors will be asked to agree

to allow certain portions of the project to be left
unfinished. If they reject the proposed solution, there
should be certain clauses incorporated in the standard
legal contract that obliges the contractors to use their
own resources to complete the project.

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 As an alternative, Government Agencies may be asked to
help provided the documentation shows that it would be
in the public interest to have the project completed as
soon as possible.

Benefits to the larger community,

If local Government bodies wish to draw the social

wages spenders into the realisation of one of their pet
projects, all they need to do is to advertise the project
on companies' intra communication networks

Upgrading Meetings.

These gatherings which at irregular intervals are

arranged in the firms concerned, would be strictly
informative and broadly educational. They would be
stand-alone events, with little or no relationship to the
previously mentioned meetings.
If an employee is in a new job, giving some information
is of course a basic requirement. After some time, you
up-grade him or her by enlightening the person
concerning the general background of the demand
situation. "Upgrading" extends the person's ego into the
reasons why there is a demand at all for the relevant
work effort. "Upgrading" provides a perception in depth
concerning w h a t the person is participating in. It is
thus an upgrading of the person itself.

Upgrading is not coaching either. It’s just an opening of

windows so that fresh air can come in and people can

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 begin to breathe normally. It is out of the breathing-in of
the proper perspective of the t r u e work situation that
the worker begins to function as a person.

Upgrading Meetings may be organised by the company's

MD by inviting guest speakers who have detailed
knowledge of the field and have travelled he world. They
may also be organised by a spokesman for staff and/or
workers of the company. For example, one of the
company scientists may be invited to speak about his/her
career, or about the nature of the materials they work
with, and workers' own experience may also be invited.
In anticipation, the demand picture may be forecast for
the next hundred years and compared with the demand
picture in the early Middle Ages. By the same token, eye
witness lectures may be arranged using projector
equipment permitting the speaker to transfer to the
audience an immediate impression and insight into the
constituent elements of a locality, and recalling in the
audience a once experienced mood and reality.

______________

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