The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 09: Tangential ViewsBierce, Ambrose
General
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 09: Tangential Views
Bierce, Ambrose
American essays; American literature
Doubtless “colossal” fortunes have their disadvantages, chiefly,
I think, to those in possession; but as a general proposition,
money-making may safely be permitted, for there is no way under the sun
to get any good out of money except by parting with it. One may pay
it to a tradesman for goods; the tradesman pays it to another, but
eventually it goes to the man that makes the goods, the workman. Or
one may lend it on interest, the borrower lending it again at a higher
interest, or investing it; it may pass through a dozen hands, but the
ultimate man pays it out for labor—the sole purpose and meaning of the
entire series of transactions. All the money in the world, except the
small part hoarded by misers or lost, is paid out for labor, flows back
in converging streams as capital, and is again distributed in wages.
Does the socialist know this? He knows nothing; he learned it from Karl
Marx and Upton Sinclair. The man who, making money in his own country,
spends it in another, may or may not be mischievous to his countrymen;
that depends on what he buys. To his race he is harmless and beneficial.
On the whole, the unfortunate rich man, cowering as a prisoner in the
dock before the austere tribunal of public opinion, has a pretty good
defense if he only knew it. As he seems imperfectly provided with
counsel and is not saying much himself, it would be only just for the
court to enter a plea of not guilty for him, and to hear a little
more testimony than that so abundantly proffered by swift and willing
witnesses for the prosecution.
III
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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