Chapter LXI: Section CCIII

EFFECT OF AN EQUAL DIVISION OF THE NATIONAL INCOME.

The best distribution of the national income among a people is that which enables them to enjoy the greatest amount and variety of real goods, and permanently to produce real goods in an increasing quantity and variety.

If the income of a people were divided equally among all, each one would indeed, be, to a very great extent, independent of all others. But then, no one would care to devote himself to the coarser and less agreeable occupations, and these would be either entirely neglected, or people would have to take turns in engaging in them.[203-1] (§ 9.) And thus would disappear one of the chief advantages of the division of labor, viz: that the higher orders of talent are devoted to the higher orders of labor. Besides, it is very doubtful, whether, under such circumstances, there would still be any solvent (_zahlungsfähige_) demand for the achievements of art.

Nor would the saving of capital prosper, where such equality prevailed. Most men consider the average outlay of their equals as an unavoidable want, and save only to the extent that they possess more than others of their class. If, therefore, every one had an equal income, no one would consider himself in a condition to save.[203-2] The same consideration would deter most men from every economic venture, and yet no great progress is possible where no venture is made.[203-3] [203-4]

[Footnote 203-1: According to _Schäffle_, System, II, 379
ff., "the distribution of the social return of production
which conduces to the attainment of the highest measure of
civilization in the moral association of men and in all the
grades of that association, and thereby to the satisfaction
of all true human wants in the highest degree." Thus only
can a satisfactory line of demarkation be drawn between the
profit of capital and the wages of labor (384).]

[Footnote 203-2: See _Aristoph._, Plut., 508 ff. Not taken
into consideration sufficiently by _Benjamin Franklin_, in
his eulogy of the equality of property: The internal State
of America, 1784.]

[Footnote 203-3: The essential characteristic of the desert
is, according to _Ritter_, Erdkunde, I, 1019 seq., its
uniformity. No break in the horizontal plain, and hence no
condensation of atmospheric vapor into bodies of water of
any considerable size. The composition of the soil is
everywhere the same; nothing but masses of silex and salt,
hard and sharp. Lastly, extreme mobility of the surface,
which undulates with every wind, so that no plant can take
root in it. Nearly every feature in this picture finds its
analogon in the extreme political and economic equality of
men.]

[Footnote 203-4: _Les supériorités, qui ne sont dues qu'à,
un usage plus intelligent et mieux réglé de nos facultés
naturelles, loin d'être un mal, sont un véritable bien.
C'est dans la plus grande prospérité, qui accompagne un plus
grand et plus heureux effort, qu'est le principe de tout
développement._ (_Dunoyer_, Liberté du Travail, IV, 9, 10.)
But, indeed, the rich man should never forget that society
"inasmuch as it permits the concentration of wealth in his
hands, expects that he will employ it to better advantage
than the mass of mankind would if that same wealth were
equally divided among them." (_Brentano._)]