The effect of distribution on industry. Political economy, or the art of spending the national income to the greatest general advantage. Importance of the order in which goods are produced. Those which are wanted most should be produced first. Food, clothes, and houses should come before scent and jewellery, babies’ needs before the needs of lapdogs. Nothing but equality of purchasing power can preserve this vital order in the industries which cater for purchasers. Inequality of income upsets it hopelessly: the labor which should feed starving children is expended in the production of trivial luxuries. This is excused on the ground that the purchasers give employment. Absurdity of this plea. 49 16 EUGENICS Effect of distribution on the quality of people as human beings. The problem of breeding the nation. In breeding animals the problem is simple though the art is uncertain and difficult, because the animal is bred for some single specific purpose, such as the provision of food or for racing or haulage. The stockbreeder knows exactly what sort of animal is wanted. Nobody can say what sort of human being is wanted. It is not enough to say that certain sorts are not wanted. The stockbreeders’ methods are therefore not applicable: the keeper of a human stud farm, if such a thing were established by a mad professor of eugenics, would not know what to aim at or how to begin. We are therefore thrown back on natural sexual attraction as our only guide. Sexual attraction in human beings is not promiscuous: it is always specific: we choose our mates. But this choice is defeated by inequality of income, which restricts our choice to members of our own class: that is, persons with similar incomes or no incomes. Resultant prevalence of bad breeding and domestic unhappiness. The most vital condition of good distribution is that it shall widen the field of sexual selection to the extent of making the nation completely intermarriageable. Only equality of income can do this. 53 17 THE COURTS OF LAW