Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Liberalism -- Great Britain
This brings us to the second sense in which property is social. There is
a social element in value and a social element in production. In modern
industry there is very little that the individual can do by his unaided
efforts. Labour is minutely divided; and in proportion as it is divided
it is forced to be co-operative. Men produce goods to sell, and the
rate of exchange, that is, price, is fixed by relations of demand and
supply the rates of which are determined by complex social forces. In
the methods of production every man makes use, to the best of his
ability, of the whole available means of civilization, of the machinery
which the brains of other men have devised, of the human apparatus which
is the gift of acquired civilization. Society thus provides conditions
or opportunities of which one man will make much better use than
another, and the use to which they are put is the individual or personal
element in production which is the basis of the personal claim to
reward. To maintain and stimulate this personal effort is a necessity of
good economic organization, and without asking here whether any
particular conception of Socialism would or would not meet this need we
may lay down with confidence that no form of Socialism which should
ignore it could possibly enjoy enduring success. On the other hand, an
individualism which ignores the social factor in wealth will deplete the
national resources, deprive the community of its just share in the
fruits of industry and so result in a one-sided and inequitable
distribution of wealth. Economic justice is to render what is due not
only to each individual but to each function, social or personal, that
is engaged in the performance of useful service, and this due is
measured by the amount necessary to stimulate and maintain the efficient
exercise of that useful function. This equation between function and
sustenance is the true meaning of economic equality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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