THERE is nothing divinely ordained about the economic system: it is the product of human ingenuity, effort and capacity to organise and, therefore, can properly be questioned, criticised and, if a better alternative exists, rejected. Its justification lies in a conviction that, despite defects, it has provided the populations of western industrialised nations with rising material standards of living over the last two centuries. It has been reasonable to believe that those standards are being increasingly shared by the poorest groups in those societies. It has also seemed reasonable to believe that as its techniques and processes are adopted by other less industrially organised societies, they too will share the experience of the industrial west.

This pattern of beliefs has continued to seem reasonable through changes in the structure of the economic system which, inter alia, have meant that the great majority of the population must now depend on employment for wages or salary for their share in what the economic system produces. In oversimplified terms, the system has been justified by the expectation that it would provide employment at increasing real wage levels for those seeking it.