If the income of a people were divided equally among all, each one would indeed, be, to a very great extent, independent of all others. But then, no one would care to devote himself to the coarser and less agreeable occupations, and these would be either entirely neglected, or people would have to take turns in engaging in them.[203-1] (§ 9.) And thus would disappear one of the chief advantages of the division of labor, viz: that the higher orders of talent are devoted to the higher orders of labor. Besides, it is very doubtful, whether, under such circumstances, there would still be any solvent (_zahlungsfähige_) demand for the achievements of art. Nor would the saving of capital prosper, where such equality prevailed. Most men consider the average outlay of their equals as an unavoidable want, and save only to the extent that they possess more than others of their class. If, therefore, every one had an equal income, no one would consider himself in a condition to save.[203-2] The same consideration would deter most men from every economic venture, and yet no great progress is possible where no venture is made.[203-3] [203-4] [Footnote 203-1: According to _Schäffle_, System, II, 379 ff., "the distribution of the social return of production which conduces to the attainment of the highest measure of civilization in the moral association of men and in all the grades of that association, and thereby to the satisfaction of all true human wants in the highest degree." Thus only can a satisfactory line of demarkation be drawn between the profit of capital and the wages of labor (384).] [Footnote 203-2: See _Aristoph._, Plut., 508 ff. Not taken into consideration sufficiently by _Benjamin Franklin_, in his eulogy of the equality of property: The internal State of America, 1784.] [Footnote 203-3: The essential characteristic of the desert is, according to _Ritter_, Erdkunde, I, 1019 seq., its uniformity. No break in the horizontal plain, and hence no condensation of atmospheric vapor into bodies of water of any considerable size. The composition of the soil is everywhere the same; nothing but masses of silex and salt, hard and sharp. Lastly, extreme mobility of the surface, which undulates with every wind, so that no plant can take root in it. Nearly every feature in this picture finds its analogon in the extreme political and economic equality of men.]