much to be desired that in large part the finances of a system of social insurance should be disassociated from the ordinary budgetary system of taxation and public expenditures.  The fundamental reason why the premiums should be divided between employers and employees is that this is most favorable to the equal participation and cooeperative efforts toward reducing the risk, and developing right industrial and political relations.  Everywhere it is the practice to provide for representation nearly in proportion to contributions.

It is usually assumed by employers, by wage-workers, and by others in the discussion of the subject, that the burden remains and is borne by those who directly pay the premiums, and just in proportion to their payments.  This is an almost utterly mistaken view.  There is, on the contrary, every reason to believe that the general principles of shifting and incidence of taxation apply fully here.[6] It cannot be doubted that, if wages are not arbitrarily fixed, if they result, as we must believe, from an adjustment and equilibrium of the various classes of labor in a general economic situation, then after a time the premiums become a part of that general situation.  Payments compulsorily made by employers (by all, without exception) will ultimately be offset by a lower wage, and if transferred to the workmen will ultimately be offset by a higher wage.  Of course, there is some delay and friction in making the adjustment, but, under any settled policy, the adjustment once made will be maintained.  The benefit of social insurance to the workingmen is not mainly that their wages are increased by the direct contributions of employers to the premiums, tho there are doubtless some cases of “parasitic” industries and parasitic employers that escape their due share of payments for risk, now that there is no insurance system.  The great benefits are that total wages and losses are apportioned economically to the points of maximum utility; that accumulation of capital by and for the wage workers is made regular, automatic, safe, and in great amounts; and that financial aid, physical care, and mental relief from, some of the most tragic anxieties of life, are given effectively and economically to the masses of the people.

But, as has been indicated in another connection above, it is far from being a matter of indifference, psychologically, where the first, immediate burden of premium payment falls.  The persons paying the premiums, in whole or in part, are far more keenly aware of the cost, and alive to reducing and removing the evil conditions.  Moreover, their interest is stimulated by the fact that they are the first to gain by any temporary economies, and the more so because of the illusory belief sure to persist, that they are the ultimate as well as the immediate bearers of the costs.

The development of a complete system of social insurance along these lines promises to do more than any other single measure of practical social reform now under consideration to change the conditions and the outlook of the wage-earning class.