"[I]n conditions of full employment, such as we have today, it is clear that the bargaining power of Trade Unions is very strong. Employers in general can sell all they can produce profitably and are afraid that they will never get their labour back if they once lose it. Workers know that there is plenty of work available. Thus there is no real obstacle to the steady increase in wages, which in turn leads to corresponding increases in prices. I must tell my colleagues that I do not see any easy answer to this problem."
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Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomUniversity of Cambridge alumniAcademics from the United KingdomGovernment ministersConservative Party (UK) politicians
Original Language: English
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Sources
Memorandum (10 December 1951), quoted in Correlli Barnett, The Verdict of Peace. Britain Between Her Yesterday and the Future (2002), p. 71
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rab_Butler
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Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, KG, CH, DL, PC (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler, was a British Conservative politician. Butler was passed over twice as a potential Prime Minister, but did serve in the other three Great Offices of State (Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary).
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