Page 138 - Afrika Must Unite

BUIL DING SOCIALISM IN GHANA 123

from the colonial regime and call for adjustment to the socialized
objective of our planning. These are being overhauled and
adapted to our development needs and the planned growth of
our diversified agricultural and industrial base. O ur fiscal policy
must be so framed as to release the maximum initiative and
husband our national financial resources for efficient and
effective investment in our development. It would simply defeat
our whole objective of economic independence, for instance, to
encourage foreign investment in our development and see the
flight of capital from Ghana exceed or even approximate the
totality of such investment.
U nder the new policy, surpluses must be pressed out of rising
production to finance development. As the state sector widens,
development finance will come less and less from taxes and dues,
though private enterprise, both foreign and domestic, will
continue to provide its quota through these avenues. O ur real
wealth will come from increased productivity. This does not
m ean that every advance in productivity will lead to an im­
mediate rise in the standard of living. This is especially the case in
the early stages of industrialization, when the need to plough
back capital for further development is of param ount im­
portance. Wages, however, must be set at a level which will
provide proper diet and m aintain working energy, while the
increased productivity is used to give effective balance between
the desirability of capital development and secondary industries
at any given time.
The socialist objective implies the universal good of the
nation, and in the interests of that socialist objective it will be
necessary for all of us to forgo some immediate personal desire
for a greater benefit a bit later on. Speedier development out of
surpluses or social services in the interest of the community
confer more advantages upon a greater num ber of people than
would increased wages for certain groups of workers.
But as productivity rises appreciably and the socialist base of
the economy extends through increasing public ownership of the
means of production, the government will not only be able to
mobilize a greater surplus for use in the interests of the country,
but will be in a position to reward labour for its greater exertions
by increased wages.