Page:Hints About Investments (1926).pdf/273

 It is really a serious problem, because the losses incurred year in year out by these unfortunates must run into big figures, and, apart from the individual hardship involved, we cannot afford to lose capital in this way. Moreover, the existence of this evil produces a swarm of human vermin who live on it, and it is an ugly blot on our financial system which invites and receives acrid but justified comment from its critics.

Some radical improvement in our investment machinery seems to be needed, and all the more because of the great increase in the investment habit, among classes in which it was formerly uncommon, during and since the war. The social importance of this growing democratization of capitalism is difficult to exaggerate, and it will mean disaster if the stimulus is checked by losses due to bad investment. Another cause which makes this problem urgent is the prominence lately given to profit-sharing as conducive to industrial co-operation. Most profit-sharing schemes invite, or even oblige, the wage earner to invest his share of profit in the company that employs him. Thereby he puts too many eggs into one basket and risks capital loss, as well as loss of his job, if the company falls on evil days. It is surely much more desirable that he should