"...we must avoid a competitive raising of wages and conditions in a scarce labour market, which raises prices. ... If we allow prices to rise because of internal costs rising, we shall lose and not gain our overseas markets, or at least not be able to gain new ones in the competition. Therefore, incentives must be strictly limited to increased production so that more earnings mean more production. We cannot in any circumstances afford to pay more for the same or less production. We must await the further raising of the levels of earnings until we can provide the goods upon which those earnings can be spent. In the same way, let me point out, that large profits drawn from industry today are just as inimical because they, too, raise the price levels and, furthermore, they offer an immediate temptation for the demand for greater salaries."
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Members of the Parliament of the United KingdomFellows of the Royal SocietyLawyers from EnglandLabour Party (UK) politiciansChancellors of the Exchequer
Original Language: English
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Speech in the House of Commons (7 August 1947)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stafford_Cripps
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Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. He served as British Ambassador to the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II, and later joined Prime Minister Winston Churchill's war cabinet. He later served as President of the Board of Trade and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
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