ABSTRACT
An economy and a society do not develop in accordance with any inviolable natural laws. The need for security is the strongest impulse behind the development of the modern welfare society. In our culture a democratic organization of society has a value of its own as well as being the basis of liberty, security and equality. The democratic forms for distributing power and responsibility may be preserved, but the real content can be successively diluted if many private citizens no longer participate actively in, and feel responsible for, economic and political decisions. Business firms and the activity they pursue ought to be for the benefit of the consumer, and not for that of the owners or others employed in production. A fundamental aspect of the values which underlie our view of distributive questions is that solidarity must be an international concept, and apply in particular to the poor countries.
