As with individuals, so with the State. National wealth, which in the highest sense of the word means the enrichment of the lives of the people, depends not on how large a number of incomes there are of over ten thousand a year, but on how small a number there are of under two hundred a year. The real riches of a nation are not to be measured by vast calculations of commercial statistics, but by the absence of destitution and the high level of healthy life which the people enjoy.
But we must accept the situation as it is. The rich have got their riches, and the problem to be considered here is not how to deprive them of their riches, but how to prevent all men, rich and poor alike, from confiding blindly in money, as they do at present, and from striving towards a false ideal which spoils their highest endeavours, blunts their moral susceptibilities, poisons their happiness, and produces a state of social disorder which is highly prejudicial to the common good. A just appreciation of the essential fact that money can only be made out of people’s labour and the wear and tear of their lives would in itself do much to prevent the growth of the spirit which leads to these alarming contrasts in riches and poverty. But men’s ideals and their moral outlook can only be altered in the long run by repeatedly exposing the actual fallacies in the views they now hold and constantly emphasising the disastrous results of the actions for which this waste of money is responsible.
Chapter III
Definition of the limit—Those whose means are above the limit—Income translated into terms of subsistence—The case of the rich man—His establishments—His servants—His luxuries—Extravagance—Vanity—Sport—Racing—Yachting—Condemnation of excess.
A more precise definition must be given of the limit of income referred to in the last chapter as “a definite amount of money which might be roughly described as a full competence.”
Every man requires, though he by no means always gets a certain income to satisfy his own needs and those of his family. In addition to this he can profitably spend more so as to add to his general utility by conveniences and comforts, he can satisfy his artistic proclivities, his desire for further knowledge, his taste for sport or amusement, all to his own and the general benefit without hurt or hindrance to anyone. But after allowing the broadest scope for the satisfaction of these legitimate wants there is a definite point beyond which he cannot safely go. That is to say, if he acquires, or if by inheritance he finds himself burdened with money beyond this limit it will inevitably react detrimentally on himself and on others. And this for two reasons: firstly because he is, as a normal human being, incapable of dealing with so great a charge, and secondly because the money, while in his possession, is being drawn away from other channels where there is special need for it.
So long as money encourages healthy effort a man may be sure the limit has not been reached, the moment money tends to relax effort the limit has been passed. It must be described as healthy effort, as, of course, money-making may increase the undesirable efforts of the speculator, the gambler, and the thief. But who is to decide what is healthy effort? The man himself. No one else can. And he knows to a nicety. Every man or woman has a different standard, and the level of the limit varies in each individual case according to ideals, capacity, and temperament. But it will not depend at all on what is one of the strongest and often the most excusable inducements for spending money, namely, environment, or the conventions of the particular stratum of society to which the man belongs. The limit for one will not be the limit for another, and a man can only become aware that this limit exists at all by observing very closely what actually is the effect that his money is having on his life and character, instead of blindly accepting his already excessive income or every increase of his fortune as a natural and unquestionable blessing.
The main brunt of the attack must clearly fall on those whose incomes are above the limit. They are in numbers a small minority, but the amount they possess is incredibly large. The present income of 1,250,000 people, assessed to income, reaches the vast sum of £850,000,000 a year. Taking the whole population of these islands, it is roughly estimated that there are 1½ millions who can be classed as rich, 3½ millions comfortably off, 38 millions as poor, of whom some 12 to 13 millions are in constant need. The existence of the 1½ millions is one of the chief causes of the condition of the 38 millions. In other words, excess above the limit causes want below the limit. The 3½ millions “comfortably off” are most of them occupied in trying to become identified with the select 1½ millions. If we could estimate the amounts in income which these classes represent the figures would be even more startling. The world has certainly never seen larger fortunes than exist to-day, nor has it seen more extensive and more inexcusable poverty. The average rate of luxurious living in the small minority is higher than it has ever been, and the dangerous and degrading effect of want on individuals and on the general community has never been so widespread or so intense. “The rich,” to use a simple term, are nearly all actuated by the same motive. They accept what they have and what they make as their own, to be spent on themselves, according to their own caprice, or on others, if they are so inclined, casting an occasional sop to some charity or philanthropic scheme as a salve to their consciences. There are, it must be acknowledged, a few, a very few who regard their riches as a trust and endeavour to the best of their ability to divert the greater part of it back into remunerative channels without exceeding a reasonable sum for their own personal wants. But as a class they insist that efforts to alter our social system are fruitless, disturbing and doomed to failure, the division of the world into rich and poor being a Providential decree, and if the rich can get service from the poor without their grumbling, that is the most desirable arrangement that can be conceived. To this a reply may be given in the words of Professor Marshall:
“Now at least we are setting ourselves seriously to inquire whether it is necessary that there should be any so-called ‘lower class’ at all: that is whether there need be large numbers of people doomed from their birth to hard work in order to provide for others the requisites of a refined and cultured life, while they themselves are prevented by their poverty and toil from having any share in that life.”