Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Liberalism -- Great Britain
This conclusion is strengthened if we consider narrowly what elements of
cost the "living wage" ought in principle to cover. We are apt to assume
uncritically that the wages earned by the labour of an adult man ought
to suffice for the maintenance of an average family, providing for all
risks. It ought, we think, to cover not only the food and clothing of
wife and children, but the risks of sickness, accident, and
unemployment. It ought to provide for education and lay by for old age.
If it fails we are apt to think that the wage earner is not self
supporting. Now, it is certainly open to doubt whether the actual
addition to wealth made by an unskilled labourer denuded of all
inherited property would equal the cost represented by the sum of these
items. But here our further principle comes into play. He ought not to
be denuded of all inherited property. As a citizen he should have a
certain share in the social inheritance. This share should be his
support in the times of misfortune, of sickness, and of worklessness,
whether due to economic disorganization or to invalidity and old age.
His children's share, again, is the State-provided education. These
shares are charges on the social surplus. It does not, if fiscal
arrangements are what they should be, infringe upon the income of other
individuals, and the man who without further aid than the universally
available share in the social inheritance which is to fall to him as a
citizen pays his way through life is to be justly regarded as
self-supporting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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