_thirteen hundred million pounds_.[3] Accordingly the income of the country, if we estimate it with a view to dividing it, is in round numbers, _twelve hundred million pounds_. [Sidenote ◆1 This, divided amongst all, would yield _thirty-two pounds_ per head:] [Sidenote ◆2 But different sexes and ages would require different amounts,] [Sidenote ◆3 The proportions of which are readily ascertainable.] ◆¹ And now let us glance at our problem in its crudest and most rudimentary form, and see what would be the share coming to each individual, if these millions were divided equally amongst the entire population. The entire population of the United Kingdom numbers a little over _thirty-eight millions_; so our division sum is simple. The share of each individual would be about _thirty-two pounds_. But this sort of equality in distribution would satisfy nobody. It is not worth talking about. For a quarter of the population are children under ten years of age,[4] and nearly two-fifths are under fifteen: and it would be absurd to assign to a baby seeking a pap-bottle, or even to a boy—voracious as boys’ appetites are—the same sum that would be assigned to a full-grown man or woman. ◆² In order to give our distribution even the semblance of rationality, the shares must be graduated according to the requirements of age and sex. The sort of proportion to each other which these graduated shares should bear might possibly be open to some unimportant dispute: but we cannot go far wrong if we take for our guide the amount of food which scientific authorities tell us is required respectively by men, women, and children; together with the average proportion which actually obtains at present, both between their respective wages and the respective costs of their maintenance. ◆³ The result which we arrive at from these sources of information is substantially as follows, and every fresh inquiry confirms it. For every _pound_ which is required or received by a man, _fifteen shillings_ does or should go to a woman, _ten shillings_ to a boy, _nine shillings_ to a girl, and _four and sixpence_ to an infant.[5] [Sidenote ◆1 The problem best approached by taking the family as the unit:] [Sidenote ◆2 And then we can arrive at the share of each member.] [Sidenote ◆3 The maximum income that an equal distribution would give a bachelor.]