“Of course not,” said Crass.
Old Joe Philpot said—nothing.
“I don’t see no sense in always grumblin’,” Crass proceeded; “these things can’t be altered. You can’t expect there can be plenty of work for everyone with all this ‘ere labor-savin’ machinery what’s been invented.”
“Of course,” said Harlow, “the people what used to be employed on the work what’s now done by machinery has to find something else to do. Some of ’em goes to our trade, for instance. The result is there’s too many at it, and there ain’t enough work to keep ’em all goin’.”
“Yes,” said Crass, eagerly, “that’s just what I say. Machinery is the real cause of all the poverty. That’s what I said the other day.”
“Machinery is undoubtedly the cause of unemployment,” replied Owen, “but it’s not the cause of poverty; that’s another matter altogether.”
The others laughed derisively.
“Well, it seems to me to amount to the same thing,” said Harlow, and nearly everyone agreed.
“It doesn’t seem to me to amount to the same thing,” Owen replied. “In my opinion we are all in a state of poverty even when we have employment. The condition we are reduced to when we’re out of work is more properly described as destitution.
“Poverty,” continued Owen after a short silence, “consists in a shortage of the necessaries of life. When those things are so scarce or so dear that people are unable to obtain sufficient of them to satisfy all their needs, they are in a condition of poverty. If you think that the machinery which makes it possible to produce all the necessaries of life in abundance is the cause of the shortage, it seems to me there must be something the matter with your minds.”