Tendency of those who are comfortably off to believe that this is what is actually happening. Circumstances which support this view. Facts which reduce it to absurdity. Proposals to adopt the principle and make it happen in future. The first and final objection is that it cannot be done. Merit cannot be measured in money. The truth of this can be ascertained at once by taking any real case of two human beings, and attempting to fix the proportion of their incomes according to their merits or faults. 26 10 TO EACH WHAT SHE CAN GRAB This plan postulates equal grabbing power as between children, old people, invalids, and ablebodied persons in the prime of life. That is, it presupposes a state of things that does not exist. Otherwise it is simple amorality, which even pirates find impossible if they are to hold together for any length of time. It is, however, tolerated at present in trade. Lawless robbery and violence are barred; but the tradesman may get as much and give as little for it as he can; and the landlord may even use legalized violence to get the utmost for the use of his land. The results of this limited toleration of grab are so unsatisfactory that laws are continually being made to palliate them. The plan, which is really no plan at all, must be dismissed as disastrous. 29 11 OLIGARCHY The plan of making the few rich and the many poor has worked for a long time and is still working. The advantages claimed for it. The rich class as a preserve of culture. The incomes of the rich as a reservoir of money which provides by its overflow the socially necessary fund of spare money called capital. The privileges of the rich as a means of securing a governing class. Efficacy of the plan when organized as the Feudal System. How it works in villages and Highland clans. How it fails in cities. Modern urbanized civilization has no use for it, all our governing work being done by paid public servants. This leaves it with only one pretension: that of providing capital by satiation and overflow. But the satiation is too costly even when it is achieved. There is no guarantee that the rich will use any part of their income as capital, or that when they do so they will invest it at home where it is most needed. The accumulation of capital can be provided for in other ways. The plan is breaking under the weight of its enormous abuses. 30 12 DISTRIBUTION BY CLASS