A Vision of the Future, Based on the Application of Ethical Principles — David Hume — John Shaqi
A Vision of the Future, Based on the Application of Ethical Principles
David Hume · en
Let us look at the proportional value of rent, interest, profits and
rent of ability in their relation to the reward of manual labour. Out of
the yearly income of the nation, recently computed at £1,450,000,000,
£510,000,000 goes in rent and interest and £410,000,000 in profits and
salaries to the ruling classes, while £530,000,000 only is available for
payment of wages to manual workers. But when we consider that the latter
compose the great mass of the population, and the former a small section
or fraction of it only, the enormities involved in the working of our
property institutions exhibit their true colours, and the growing sense
of justice within civilized humanity revolts wholly from the system. The
facts, roughly speaking, are that one-third of the total income of the
nation goes to four-fifths of the population, while the remaining
one-fifth pockets two-thirds of the income. (See Sidney Webb in _Fabian
Tract No. 69_.)
In the Census of 1891 there were 543,038 adult men who entered
themselves as not working for a living. We may assume these belonged
chiefly to the wealthy classes, and if we reckon their average incomes
at £500 per annum, there emerges a sum of £271,519,000 as approximately
the value of the labour they exact each year from workers to whom they
render no services in return. Again, if we add to the number of these
idle men the women and children now living on rent and interest, the
above computation falls far short of the reality. And, need it be said,
the more there is taken from workers by non-workers, the less must
remain for the workers themselves.