"But surely there is nothing very difficult about spending money, if you really set out to do it! In my country rich men buy fine pictures, and things of that sort." "Well, unless the fine pictures in your country cost more than the poor ones, I don't see how that's to help them." "They do cost more. They cost enormous sums." "Yours seems a very funny sort of country, and I shouldn't say too much about it if I were you, or people will think you are romancing. Everything here that is worth having is cheap, and everything that isn't is dear. The rich aren't educated up to appreciating the good things." "What do they learn in their schools?"[5] "The education is good as far as it goes. In fact, some old-fashioned people say it is too good, and unfits the rich for the serious business of their lives, which is to spend money that the poor earn; although, of course, they would not put it in that way. There was a good deal of grumbling when the last government permitted science to be taught in the public schools. It was felt that the children of rich parents would be much better employed in learning expensive habits, so as to fit them for their station in life. But I, for one, should certainly not give in to that view." "Well then, couldn't the rich get rid of some of their wealth by building hospitals, or endowing research, or something of that sort?" "Endowing research?" he repeated in a puzzled way. "How could they do that? Only the poor can endow research--by relieving suitable men of the wealth that might hamper them in their work." "Well then, building hospitals, or picture galleries, public works--anything?" "But the state does all that. Of course, the rich contribute their share of the rates and taxes, and there is a good deal of grumbling amongst them at present, because the party that was lately elected to bring about profusion has turned out more economical than the party it defeated. No; it is the overplus of wealth that makes the social difficulty. It _must_ be used, of course, and there _must_, unless we limit supply,[6] be a submerged class on whose shoulders rests the burden of using it." "I still don't see why it shouldn't be wasted, or merely hoarded. Don't the rich men hoard their wealth?" "How could they? The Government auditors would be down on them at once." "How would they know?" "Well, everybody has to keep accounts, and the auditors are quite sharp enough to stop any serious defalcation."[7] "But why take all this trouble to see that wealth isn't wasted! It _is_ wasted if it keeps a large class of people in idle luxury, when the state has made up its mind that idle luxury is a bad thing for mankind." "Ah, my dear Howard! There you sum up the selfishness of human nature. As long as the poor have power they will put their burdens on the rich."