Criminality and economic conditionsBonger, Willem Adriaan
General
Criminality and economic conditions
Bonger, Willem Adriaan
Crime -- Economic aspects
“This is not all, but it also results from this abuse of which I have
been speaking, namely that wealth is so badly distributed among men,
some having everything, or at least much more than their true share,
and others having nothing, or lacking a part of what is useful and
necessary ... it results from this, I say, that hatred and envy first
of all arise. From these spring in turn murmurings, complainings,
commotions, insurrections, and wars, which cause an infinity of evils
among men. From these again proceed thousands and millions of
mischievous lawsuits which the private owners are obliged to have among
themselves to defend their property and to maintain what they consider
their rights. These suits cause thousands of pains to the body, and
tens of thousands of disquietudes to the mind, and often enough cause
the entire ruin of both parties. From this it also happens that those
who have nothing, or who have not all that they need, are constrained
and obliged to employ evil means to get subsistence. From this come the
frauds, deceptions, rascalities, injustices, extortions, robberies,
thefts, murders, assassinations, and brigandages which cause such an
infinity of evils among men.” [6]
III.
J. J. ROUSSEAU.
I believe that the following observation, which I find in the
“Discourse upon the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men”, is
worth quoting.
“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, took it into his
head to say, ‘This is mine’, and found people simple enough to believe
him, was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, and
murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been
spared if some one had torn up the stakes, or filled the ditch, and
cried to his comrades: ‘Beware of heeding this impostor. You are lost
if you forget that the fruits of the ground belong to all, and the
ground itself to no one.’” [7]
IV.
MORELLY.
In his “Code de la nature” this author seeks to show that the harmony
in which men lived in primitive society (when common property existed)
has been destroyed by the institution of private property, which,
coming in little by little, has changed common interests into contrary
interests. He expresses himself on this point as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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