It can easily be calculated how much social labor will be necessary for the manufacture of each product.[231] Thereby the relation of this portion of work to the entire working-time can be calculated.
Any kind of certificate, a printed piece of paper, gold or tin, enables the holder to exchange same for various kinds of commodities.[232] If he finds that his wants are less than what he receives for his services, he can work less, accordingly. If he wishes to give away what he does not use, nobody will prevent him from so doing. If he voluntarily chooses to work for another, so that the other one may idle, or if he wishes to divide his share of the social products, no one will restrain him. But no one can compel him to work for another person’s advantage, no one can deprive him of a part of the share he is entitled to for his services. Everyone will be able to satisfy all desires and requirements possible of fulfillment, but not at the expense of others. He receives from society the equivalent of what he produces, no more and no less, and remains free from exploitation.
[230] It must be noted again and again that production will be organized according to the highest scale of technical development and that all will be engaged in it, so that, under favorable circumstances, a working-day of three hours may still prove too long. Owen, who was a large manufacturer and was therefore competent to judge, estimated—in the early part of the nineteenth century—that a working-day of two hours would be sufficient.
[231] “The amount of social labor represented by a given product need not be determined in a round-about way; daily experience will show directly how much on an average will be required. Society will be able to calculate how many hours of work are represented by a steam-engine, a hectolitre of wheat of the last harvest, or a hundred square yards of cloth of a certain quality. Society will accordingly not think of expressing the quantities of work contained in the products—that will then be directly known—in the relative, fluctuating, uncertain manner of a third product, inevitable at present, instead of expressing them by their natural, adequate, absolute measure-time. It will be necessary to arrange the plan of production in accordance with the means of production, including labor-power. The usefulness of the various commodities, balanced with one another and with the amount of work necessary for their production will ultimately determine the plan. Everything will be adjusted in a very simple way without the intercession of the famous ‘value’.” Fr. Engels—Mr. Eugen Duehring’s Transformation of Science.
[232] Mr. Eugen Richter in his “False Doctrines” is so amazed by the fact that in socialistic society the use of money will be dropped (it will not be abolished outright but will simply become superfluous because the products of labor will no longer have the character of goods), that he devotes a special chapter to this incident. The thing that especially puzzles him is that it will be immaterial whether the working certificate will be a printed piece of paper, gold or tin. He says: “With gold the demon of the present world order would enter the socialistic state again” (Mr. Richter obstinately overlooks that eventually there will be only a socialistic society, not a socialistic “state,” for a great deal of his argumentation would then loose ground), “for gold has independent value as a metal and can easily be hoarded, and so the possession of pieces of gold would make it possible to accumulate values to escape the duty to work and even to loan out money on interest.”—One must consider one’s readers very stupid to place such bosh before them. Mr. Richter who cannot free himself from the conception of capital, cannot see that where there is no capital, no goods, there can be no money, and that where there is neither capital nor money there can be no interest. We should like to know how a member of socialistic society could “hoard” his golden working certificate or could even loan it on interest, when all the others also own what the one offers and—on which he lives.
[7.—Equal Duty to Work for All.]
“But how will you discriminate between thrifty and lazy, intelligent and stupid persons?” That is one of the questions most frequently asked by our opponents, and the answer we give them puzzles them greatly. But these wise questioners never stop to think that, among our hierarchy of officials, the distinction between thrifty and lazy, intelligent and stupid persons is not made, but that the length of service usually determines the salary and promotion. Teachers and professors—many of whom are the most naïve questioners—have their salaries determined by the position they fill, not by the value of their services. In many cases officials, military men and scientists, are not promoted according to their abilities, but according to rank, relationship, friendship, and the favor of women. That wealth is not measured either by intelligence and thrift, may be seen by the three-class-electoral-system of Prussia. We find saloon-keepers, bakers and butchers, many of whom are not able to speak grammatically, enrolled in the first class, while men of intelligence and science, the highest officials of the state and the nation, are enrolled in the second or third class. There will be no difference between thrifty and lazy, intelligent and stupid persons, because that which we understand by these terms will have disappeared. Society, for instance, calls some people “lazy” because they have been thrown out of employment, have been driven to a life of vagabondage, and have finally become real vagabonds. We also apply this term to people who are the victims of a bad education. But whoever should venture to call lazy the man of means who spends his time in idleness and debauchery would commit an insult, for the rich idler is a “respectable” man.
Now what aspect will matters assume in the new society? All will develop under similar conditions of life, and everyone will perform the task assigned to him by ability and inclination. Therefore the differences in achievements will be slight.[233] The social atmosphere that will incite each to excel the others will help to level the distinctions. If a person should realize that he is unable to accomplish in one line of work what others accomplish, he will choose some other line better suited to his strength and his abilities. Everyone who has worked together with a great many persons knows that people who were inefficient at one task have proved very efficient when given another. By what right can anyone ask for privileges? If some person is so incapacitated by nature that it is quite impossible for him to accomplish what others accomplish, society cannot punish him for the shortcomings of nature. On the other hand, if some one has been endowed by nature with abilities that elevate him above the others, society need not reward him for that which is not his personal merit. It must, furthermore, be remembered that in Socialistic society all will have the same opportunities for education, so that all can develop their knowledge and ability in accordance with their talents and inclinations. As a result, knowledge and ability will be far more developed than in bourgeois society. It will be more evenly distributed and yet more varied.