And exactly the same thing will happen to the goat-herd. He will
probably have work all the year round, because goats have to be tended,
but he will get barely enough to keep him alive, and the surplus skins
and milk will go to the owner of the no-longer-happy island. Perhaps it
will occur to the owner that the man who raises cocoanuts might also
keep an eye on the goats, and so the goat-herd will be permanently out
of a job, and will turn into what is called a tramp, or vagrant.
Inasmuch as everything to eat on the island belongs to the owner, the
ex-goat-herd will be tempted to become a criminal, and so it will be
necessary for the owner to arm the cocoanut man with a club and make him
into a policeman; or perhaps he will organize the fisherman and the
hunter into a militia for the preservation of law and order. They will
be glad to serve him, because, owing to the extreme productivity of the
island, they will be out of jobs a great part of the time, and but for
the generosity of the business man, would have no way of earning a
living.
But suppose that the cocoanut man should invent a machine for gathering
a year's supply of nuts in a week; suppose the fisherman should devise a
scheme to fill his boat with fish in a few minutes; and suppose that as
a result of these inventions the business man got so rich that he moved
to Paris, and no longer saw his workers, or even knew their names. Under
these conditions you can see that overproduction and unemployment might
increase on the island; and also the business man might seem less human
and lovable to his wage slaves, and might need a larger police force. It
might even happen that he would discover the need of a propaganda
department, in order to keep his police force loyal, and a secret
service to make sure that agitators did not get into the schools.
The five islanders, having filled all the barns and storehouses, would
be turned out to starve; and when they asked the reason, they would be
told it was because they had produced a surplus of food. This may sound
grotesque, but it is what is being said to 5,000,000 men in America as I
write. There are clothing-workers who are going about in rags, and they
are told it is because they have produced too much clothing. There are
shoe-workers whose shoes are falling off their feet, and they are told
it is because they have produced too many shoes. There are carpenters
who have no homes, and they are told that a great many homes are needed,
but unfortunately it doesn't pay the builders to go ahead just now. This
may sound like a caricature, but it happens to be the most prominent
single fact in the consciousness of 5,000,000 Americans at the close of
the year 1921. No wonder they are discontented with the present order.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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