~ 



What Peace Can Mean to American 

 Farmers 



MAINTENANCE OF FULL EMPLOYMENT 

 CONTENTS 



Page Page 



Introduction 1 Business-enterprise faciliites 11 



Shifting production from war to peace 2 Residential housing 12 



The problem 4 Revision of the social security system 14 



Helping private enterprise maintain full Unemployment insurance 14 



employment 6 Old-age and survivors' insurance. . 15 



Maintenance of farm purchasing Improvement in the timing and co- 

 power 6 ordination of public expenditures 17 



Revision of tax laws 7 Appropriate types of public expenditures 19 



Encouragement of competition 9 Management of the Federal debt 22 



Stimulation of private investment. . . 11 Summary 2U 



INTRODUCTION 



What peace can mean to American farmers depends more upon 

 the level of business activity and nonfarm employment that can be 

 maintained after the war than upon anything else. Although all the 

 problems of post-war agriculture would not be solved by a full- 

 employment economy, there can be little question that the country 

 generally would be better off if productive jobs are available for all 

 who are able and willing to work, than if millions of Avorkers are 

 walking the streets looking for jobs, or are forced "back to the land" 

 in an attempt to dig their living out of the soil. Farmers can be 

 assured that an economy characterized by high levels of employ- 

 ment, as contrasted with high levels of unemployment, would bring 

 them (1) substantially larger market outlets for most farm products, 

 (2) greater opportunities for some of their sons and daughters to 

 find nonfarm jobs, and (3) a better chance for themselves to shift 

 to more productive farms or out of agriculture entirely if they want 

 to do so. 



The significance of full employment to agriculture is summarized 

 in table 1, reproduced from the first report in this series, Miscel- 

 laneous Publication No. 562, Post-War Agriculture and Employ- 

 ment. On the basis of stated assumptions, the estimates presented 

 in this table are designed to show the economic conditions likely to 

 be associated with various degrees of employment and unemploy- 

 ment in the post-war period, and to indicate the possible effect of 

 these conditions upon the price and income position of agriculture. 

 They are not forecasts for 1950, but are intended to represent condi- 

 tions well beyond the war and reconversion periods, assuming that 

 past statistical relationships, adjusted for evident trends among 

 certain items, would continue into the post-war period. 



