Britain For The British Part 5

Those who have read anything about political economy or _Socialism_ must often have found such thoughts as these rise up in their minds--

How is it some are rich and others poor? How is it some who are able and willing to work can get no work to do? How is it that some who work very hard are so poorly paid? How is it that others who do not work at all have more money than they need? Why is one man born to pay rent and another to spend it?

Let us first face the question of why there is so much poverty.

This question has been answered in many strange ways.

It has been said that poverty is due to drink. But that is not true, for we find many sober people poor, and we find awful poverty in countries where drunkenness is almost unknown.

Drink does not cause the poverty of the sober Hindoos. Drink does not cause the poverty of our English women workers.

It has been said that poverty is due to "over-production," and it has been said that it is due to "under-consumption." Let us see what these phrases mean.

First, over-production. Poverty is due to over-production--of _what_? Of wealth. So we are to believe that the people are poor because they make too much wealth, that they are hungry because they produce too much food, naked because they make too many clothes, cold because they get too much coal, homeless because they build too many houses!

Next, under-consumption. We are told that poverty is due to under-consumption--under-consumption of _what_? Of wealth. The people are poor because they do not destroy enough wealth. The way for them to grow rich is by consuming riches. They are to make their cake larger by eating it.

Alas! the trouble is that they can get no cake to eat; they can get no wealth to consume.

But I think the economists mean that the poor will grow richer if the rich consume more wealth.

A rich man has two slaves. The slaves grow corn and make bread. The rich man takes half the bread and eats it. The slaves have only one man's share between two.

Will it mend matters here if the rich man "consumes more"? Will it be better for the two slaves if the master takes half the bread left to them, and eats that as well as the bread he has already taken?

See what a pretty mess the economists have led us into. The rich have too much and the poor too little. The economist says, let the poor produce less and the rich consume more, and all will be well!

Wonderful! But if the poor produce less, there will be less to eat; and if the rich eat more, the share of the poor will be smaller than ever.

Let us try another way. Suppose the poor produce more and the rich consume less! Does it not seem likely that then the share of the poor would be bigger?

Well, then, we must turn the wisdom of the economists the other way up.

We must say over-production of wealth _cannot_ make poverty, for that means that the more of a thing is produced the less of that thing there is; and we must say that under-consumption _cannot_ cause poverty, for that means that the more of a loaf you eat the more you will have left.

Such rubbish as that may do for statesmen and editors, but it is of no use to sensible men and women. Let us see if we cannot think a little better for ourselves than these very superior persons have thought for us. I think that we, without being at all clever or learned, may get nearer to the truth than some of those who pa.s.s for great men.

Now, what is it we have to find out? We want to know how the British people may make the best of their country and themselves.

We know they are not making the best of either at present.

There must, therefore, be something wrong. Our business is to find out what is wrong, and how it may be righted.

We will begin by asking ourselves three questions, and by trying to answer them.

These questions are--

1. What is wealth?

2. Where does wealth come from?

3. Where does wealth go to?

First, then, what _is_ wealth? There is no need to go into long and confusing explanations; there is no use in splitting hairs. We want an answer that is short and simple, and at the same time good enough for the purpose.

I should say, then, that wealth is all those things which we use.

Mr. Ruskin uses two words, "wealth" and "illth." He divides the things which it is good for us to have from the things which it is not good for us to have, and he calls the good things "wealth" and the bad things "illth"--or ill things.

Thus opium prepared for smoking is illth, because it does harm or works "ill" to all who smoke it; but opium prepared as medicine is wealth, because it saves life or stays pain.

A dynamite bomb is "illth," for it is used to destroy life, but a dynamite cartridge is wealth, for it is used in getting slate or coal.

Mr. Ruskin is right, and if we are to make the best of our country and of ourselves, we ought clearly to give up producing bad things, or "illth," and produce more good things, or wealth.

But, for our purpose, it will be simpler and shorter to call all things we use wealth.

Thus a good book is wealth and a bad book "illth"; but as it is not easy to agree as to which books are good, which bad, and which indifferent, we had better call all books wealth.

By this word wealth, then, when we use it in this book, we shall mean all the things we use.

Thus we shall put down as wealth all such things as food, clothing, fuel, houses, ornaments, musical instruments, arms, tools, machinery, books, horses, dogs, medicines, toys, s.h.i.+ps, trains, coaches, tobacco, churches, hospitals, lighthouses, theatres, shops, and all other things that we _use_.

Now comes our second question: Where does wealth come from?

This question we must make into two questions--

1. Where does wealth come from?

2. Who produces wealth?

Because the question, "Where does wealth come from?" really means, "How is wealth produced?"

_All_ wealth comes from the land.

All food comes from the land--all flesh is gra.s.s. Vegetable food comes directly from the land; animal food comes indirectly from the land, all animals being fed on the land.

So the stuff of which we make our clothing, our houses, our fuel, our tools, arms, s.h.i.+ps, engines, toys, ornaments, is all got from the land.

For the land yields timber, metals, vegetables, and the food on which feed the animals from which we get feathers, fur, meat, milk, leather, ivory, bone, glue, and many other things.

Even in the case of the things that come from the sea, as sealskin, whale oil, fish, iodine, sh.e.l.ls, pearls, and other things, we are to remember that we need boats, or nets, or tools to get them with, and that boats, nets, and tools are made from minerals and vegetables got from the land.

We may say, then, that all wealth comes from the land.

This brings us to the second part of our question: "Who produces wealth?" or "How is wealth produced?"

Wealth is produced by human beings. It is the people of a country who produce the wealth of that country.