A man’s poverty does not depend so much upon what he has absolutely, as upon the relation in which his possessions stand to those of others about him, and upon the extent to which they allow him to share in the progress of the age. A cannibal in the Sandwich Islands is not poor because he has no coat; an Englishman is. When the vast majority were unable to read, a man was not poor or oppressed because he was unable to purchase books, but a German who to-day has not the means to do so is both poor and oppressed.[168] Rodbertus undertakes, in the second place, to prove that crises result from the continued decrease in labor’s share of all the goods produced. His arguments are remarkable, and contain the ablest explanation yet given of the commercial and industrial crashes which occur every few years.[169] Let us suppose that the total national production equals at a given moment ten millions of units. It makes no difference what a unit is. It may represent the value of ten oxen, five horses, one thousand bushels of wheat, ten tons of hay, and one hundred sheep, or it may equal the value of any other amount of economic goods. That is a matter of indifference. This production is divided between landlords, capitalists, and laborers, so that each class receives three millions of units, one million going to the state in the shape of taxes. Let us further assume that there is at this moment an equilibrium in production. Three millions of units of such goods, necessaries and comforts, as laborers require, are produced; three millions of units of necessaries, comforts, and luxuries are produced for capitalists; and a like amount for landlords. One million units of goods, such as the state requires, are produced. So long as this relation is maintained a cessation in production is needless. The laborers have the means of purchasing all that is produced for them, as have also landlords, capitalists, and state. If production is doubled, and the same relations are preserved, no crisis is thereby occasioned. But the difficulty lies in the fact that the same proportions are not preserved. Production increases, but the laborer’s share diminishes. He has not the means of purchasing what is produced for him. The capitalists and landlords do not increase their consumption of luxuries _pari passu_ with the diminishing consumption of laborers, as they save in order to become wealthy. Their savings are invested in putting up factories and producing goods for laborers, which laborers have not the means of purchasing in the additional amounts. Cotton goods, cloths, and other commodities are heaped up, and finally there comes a crash. During the period of depression the proper relations are gradually restored. The production has increased to twenty millions of units, let us say, of which the laborers receive four millions of units. Equilibrium is restored, when four millions are produced for them and sixteen millions for the other classes of society.