GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

284 WQRLD~CR'ISIS: DIDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS
persons to the extent of 970,000,000 Reichsmarks. It
is to be observed that in Germany unemployment' benefits
are met from coptributions by working men and
employers. There is no state contribution as in Great
Britain. But in the German system there is a section of
the unemployed who are described as affected by the
Krise (crisis), and on this item the state comes to the
rescue in the form of Krisenunterstuetzung.
For the period indicated a~ve the crisis aid amount~
ed to 137,922,958 Reichsmarks. 21
This comes up to.
nearly 1 per cent of the total public expenditure.
If unemployment in any of the forms analyzed
above is not a sure index to relative poverty or prosperity,
why is there so much of unrest, nervousness and panic
in the economic world to~day ~
Let us state the position cl~arly. We assert first.
that the regions with unemployment are not poorer to~day
than they were when there was no unemployment, and
secondly, that these regions are not poorer than the
regions where there is no unemployment at the present
moment. The Indian standard of life' and efficiency
must not be introduced in these observations. But on
the other hand,. it is necessary to admit that, absolutely
considered, poverty is an eternal and universal phenomenon.
It is impossibiE;, to conceive a people without
some strands of poverty. ~s.ides, every stage of economic
evolution is marked by its own form and type of
poverty. Unemployment is one of the forms assumed
by poverty in certain conditions of economic life. The
. 21 Handworterbuch der StaataWiaseruchaften. Erganzungsband Qena.
1929). pp. ~O-61.