LIVING WITHOUT EARNING

There are exceptional cases where people receive a living without earning it.  One class of such people is represented by thieves, gamblers, swindlers, and persons engaged in occupations that are positively harmful to the community.  Such people may be very skillful and they may work hard enough, but they take what others have earned without producing anything of value to the community.

Then there are those who are incapable of productive work because of physical defects, or through the feebleness of old age.  It is the duty of every citizen to provide, as far as possible, during his productive years, for the “rainy day” of misfortune or advancing age.  For those who cannot do so, the community must provide.

Very young children are users of wealth produced by others.  It is expected, however, that children will in later years make return to the community for what they have received during their period of dependence.

INHERITED WEALTH

Some people inherit wealth, or otherwise come into possession of it without effort on their part.  The wealth so received, however, has been earned by someone, or has come from the community in some way.  If the person who so receives it uses it in a way that is highly useful to the community, he may in a sense earn it even after he receives it; but if he uses it solely for his own enjoyment, without effort to make it highly useful to the community, he does not in any sense earn it, and places himself in the class of those who are wholly dependent upon the community.

UNFAIR COMPENSATION FOR SERVICE

On the other hand, there are people who do not get for their work a living that fairly compensates them for the service they render by it to the community.  If our community life were perfectly adjusted in all its parts; if all the people clearly recognized their common interests and their interdependence; if they had the spirit of cooperation and were wise enough to devise smoothly working machinery of cooperation;—­then the returns that a worker received for his work would be closely proportionate to the service rendered by his work.  That is, he would get what he earned, so far as wages or profits were concerned.  But this is one of the particulars in which our community life is still imperfect.  Where so many different kinds of workers are engaged in producing shoes, for example, it is extremely difficult to determine how much each should be paid for his share of the work.  What wages should be given to the different classes of workers who care for cattle, make the leather, manufacture the machines with which the shoes are made, operate the machines, mine the coal and iron for the production of the machines, and so on?  What profits shall be allowed to the men who raise the cattle, to the merchants who sell the shoes and the machines, and to the transportation companies that carry them from the factories to the dealers?  What interest shall be received by the men who furnish the capital necessary to run the factories and the farms?  These questions relating to the distribution of wealth that men produce have proved very difficult to answer satisfactorily.