Then rules and laws should be established to regulate the excessive
fortunes of certain private individuals and meet the needs of millions of
the poor masses; thus a certain moderation would be obtained. However,
absolute equality is just as impossible, for absolute equality in
fortunes, honors, commerce, agriculture, industry would end in
disorderliness, in chaos, in disorganization of the means of existence,
and in universal disappointment: the order of the community would be quite
destroyed. Thus difficulties will also arise when unjustified equality is
imposed. It is, therefore, preferable for moderation to be established by
means of laws and regulations to hinder the constitution of the excessive
fortunes of certain individuals, and to protect the essential needs of the
masses. For instance, the manufacturers and the industrialists heap up a
treasure each day, and the poor artisans do not gain their daily
sustenance: that is the height of iniquity, and no just man can accept it.
Therefore, laws and regulations should be established which would permit
the workmen to receive from the factory owner their wages and a share in
the fourth or the fifth part of the profits, according to the capacity of
the factory; or in some other way the body of workmen and the
manufacturers should share equitably the profits and advantages. Indeed,
the capital and management come from the owner of the factory, and the
work and labor, from the body of the workmen. Either the workmen should
receive wages which assure them an adequate support and, when they cease
work, becoming feeble or helpless, they should have sufficient benefits
from the income of the industry; or the wages should be high enough to
satisfy the workmen with the amount they receive so that they may
themselves be able to put a little aside for days of want and
helplessness.
When matters will be thus fixed, the owner of the factory will no longer
put aside daily a treasure which he has absolutely no need of (for, if the
fortune is disproportionate, the capitalist succumbs under a formidable
burden and gets into the greatest difficulties and troubles; the
administration of an excessive fortune is very difficult and exhausts
man’s natural strength). And the workmen and artisans will no longer be in
the greatest misery and want; they will no longer be submitted to the
worst privations at the end of their life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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