Elements of Morals. Paul Janet
We need not point out the practical impossibility of realizing such a system. Let us confine ourselves to showing its essential vice. If communism means absolute equality (and true communism does), it destroys the main inducement to work: for man assured of his living by the State, has nothing left to stimulate him to personal effort. Work, deprived of the hope of a legitimate remuneration, would be reduced to a strict minimum, and civilization, which lives by work, would rapidly go backward: general wretchedness would be the necessary consequence of this state of things; all would be equally poor and miserable; humanity would go back to its primitive state, to get from which it struggled so hard, and from which it emerged by means of work and property alone. Moreover, as it is absolutely impossible to dispense with work, the State would be obliged to enforce it upon those whom their interest did not spontaneously incline to it; from being free, work would become servile, and the pensioners of the State would in reality be but its slaves.
As to the inequality-communism (communisme inégalitaire) which recommends a remuneration from the State, proportioned to merit and products, that is to say, to capacity and works, it certainly does not so very seriously impair the principle of property and liberty; but, on the one hand, it does not satisfy the instincts of equality,[21] which have at all times inspired the communistic utopias; on the other, it attacks the family instincts by suppressing inheritance; now, if man is interested in his own fate, he interests himself still more, as he grows old, in the fate of his children; in depriving him of the responsibility for their destinies, you deprive him of the most energetic stimulus to work; and the tendency would be, though in a lesser degree, to produce the same evil of general impoverishment, as would communism properly so called. But the principal vice of all communism, whether of equality or inequality, is to substitute the State for the individual, to make of all men functionaries, to commit to the State the destinies of all individuals; in one word, to make of the State a providence.[22]
35. Inequality of riches.—Yet there will always arise in the mind a grave problem: Why are goods created for all, distributed in so unequal and capricious a manner? Why the rich and the poor? and if inequality must exist, why is it not in proportion to inequality of merit and individual work? Why are the idle and prodigal sometimes rich? Why are the poor overwhelmed by both work and poverty?
There are two questions here: 1. Why is there any inequality at all? 2. Why, supposing this inequality must exist, has it no connection with merit or the work of the individual?
Regarding the first point, we cannot deny, unless we should wish to suppress all human responsibility, all free and personal activity—in a word, all liberty—we cannot deny, I say, that the inequality of merit and of work does not authorize and justify a certain inequality in the distribution of property.
But, it is said, this inequality is not always in proportion to the work. It may be answered that as civic laws become more perfect (by the abolition of monopoly, privileges, abuse of rights, such as the feudal rights, etc.,) the distribution of riches will tend to become more and more in proportion to individual merit and efforts. There remain but two sources of inequality which do not proceed from personal work: 1, accidents; 2, hereditary transmission. But in regard to accidents, there is no way of absolutely suppressing the part chance plays in man’s destiny; it can only be corrected and diminished, and thereto tend the institutions of life-assurances, savings-banks, banks of assistance, etc., which are means of equalization growing along with the general progress. As to the inequality produced by inheritance, one of two things is to be considered: either the heir keeps and increases by his own work what he has acquired, and thus succeeds in deserving it; or, on the contrary, he ceases to work and consumes without producing, and in this case he destroys his privilege himself without the State’s meddling with it.
Besides, the question is less concerning the relative well-being of men than their absolute well-being. What use would it be to men to be all equal if they were all miserable? There is certainly more equality in a republic of savages than in our European societies; but how many of our poor Europeans are there who would exchange their condition for an existence among savages? In reality, social progress, in continually increasing general wealth, increases at the same time the well-being of each, without increasing the sum of individual efforts. This superaddition of well-being is in reality gratuitous, as Bastiat has demonstrated. “Hence,” as he says, “with a community increasing in well-being,[23] as by property ever better guaranteed, we leave behind us the community of misery from which we came.”
“Property,” says Bastiat, “tends to transform onerous into gratuitous utility. It is that spur which obliges human intelligence to draw from the inertia of matter its latent natural forces. It struggles, certainly for its own benefit, against the obstacles which make utility onerous; and when the obstacle is overthrown, it is found that its disappearance benefits all. Then the indefatigable proprietor attacks new obstacles, and continually raising the human level, he more and more realizes community, and with it equality in the midst of the great human family.”
36. Duties concerning the property of others.—After having established the right of general property, we have to expound the duties relative to the property of others.
The property of others may be injured in various ways, and in different cases. These cases are: 1, loans; 2, trusts; 3, things lost; 4, sales; 5, property strictly so-called.
37. Loans.—Debts.—The inequality of riches is the cause that among men some have need of what others possess, and yet cannot procure by purchase, for want of means. In this case, the first turn to the second to obtain the temporary enjoyment of the thing they stand in need of; this is called borrowing; the reciprocal act, which consists in conceding for a time the desired object, is called loaning. He who borrows, and who by this very act engages himself to return the thing again, is called debtor (who owes), and he who loans is called creditor; he has a credit on his debtor.
Several questions spring from this, some very simple, others very delicate, and often debated.
38. Rights and duties of the creditor.—Money interest.—Usury.—And first, is it a duty to loan to any that ask you? It is evident that if it is a duty it can be only a duty of charity, or friendliness, but not of strict justice. One is no more obliged to loan to all than to give to all. The duty of loaning, like the duty of giving without discrimination, would be tantamount to the negation of property; for he who would open his money-chest to all unconditionally, however rich he might be, would in a few days be absolutely despoiled. Besides, the same duty weighing equally on those who have received, they in their turn would be obliged to pass their goods over to others, and no one would ever be proprietor. In this case, it would even be better to hand all property over to the State, that it might establish a certain order and fixity in the repartition of it.
It is this doctrine which a Father of the Church, Clement of Alexandria, has expressed in these terms in his treatise: Can any rich man be saved?
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