The American Empire

by Scott Nearing

The man who fails to assist in productive activity gives nothing of himself in return for the food, clothing and shelter which he enjoys,—that is, he lives on the labor of others. Where some have sowed and reaped, hammered and drilled, he has regaled himself on the fruits of their toil, while never toiling himself.

The matter appears most clearly in the case of an heir to an estate. The father dies, leaving his son the title deeds to a piece of city land. If he has no confidence in his son's business ability or if his son is a minor, he may leave the land in trust, and have it administered in his son's interest by some well organized trust company. The father did not make the land, though he did buy it. The son neither made nor bought the land, it merely came to him; and yet each year he receives a rent-payment upon which he is able to live comfortably without doing any work. It must at once be apparent that this son of his father, economically speaking, performs no function in the community, but merely takes from the community an annual toll or rental based on his ownership of a part of the land upon, which his fellowmen depend for a living. Of what will this toll consist? Of bread, shoes, motor-cars, cigars, books and pictures,—the products of the labor of other men.

This son of his father is living on his income,—supported by the labor of other people. He performs no labor himself, and yet he is able to exist comfortably in a world where all of the things which are consumed are the direct or indirect product of the labor of some human being.

Living on one's income is not a new social experience, but it is relatively new in the United States. The practice found a reasonably effective expression in the feudalism of medieval Europe. It has been brought to extraordinary perfection under the industrialism of Twentieth Century America.

Imagine the feelings of the early inhabitants of the American colonies toward those few gentlemen who set themselves up as economically superior beings, and who insisted upon living without any labor, upon the labor performed by their fellows. It was against the suggestion of such a practice that Captain John Smith vociferated his famous "He that will not work, neither shall he eat." The suggestion that some should share in the proceeds of community life without participating in the hardships that were involved in making a living seemed preposterous in those early days.

To-day, living on one's income is accepted in every industrial center of the United States as one of the methods of gaining a livelihood. Some men and women work for a living. Other men and women own for a living.

Workers are in most cases the humble people of the community. They do not live in the finest homes, eat the best food, wear the most elaborate clothing, or read, travel and enjoy the most of life.

The owners as a rule are the well-to-do part of the community. They derive much of all of their income from investments. The return which they make to the community in services is small when compared with the income which they receive from their property holdings.

Living on one's income is becoming as much a part of American economic life as living by factory labor, or by mining, or by manufacturing, or by any other occupation upon which the community depends for its products. The difference between these occupations and living on one's income is that they are relatively menial, and it is relatively respectable, that is, they have won the disapprobation and it has won the approbation of American public opinion.

The best general picture of the economic situation that permits a few people to live on their incomes, while the masses of the people work for a living, is contained in the reports of the Federal Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The figures for 1917 ("Statistics of Income for 1917" published August 1919) show that 3,472,890 persons filed returns, making one for each six families in the United States. Almost one half of the total number of returns made in 1917 were from persons whose income was between $1000 and $2000. There were 1,832,132 returns showing incomes of $2000 or more, one for each twelve families in the country.