This
is like maintaining that, given the number of oscillations of a
pendulum per second, their amplitude, and the latitude and
elevation of the spot where the experiment is performed, the
length of the pendulum cannot be determined because the pendulum
is in motion. Such is political economy's first article of
faith.
As for socialism, it does not appear to have understood the
question, or to be concerned about it. Among its many organs,
some simply and merely put aside the problem by substituting
division for distribution,--that is, by banishing number and
measure from the social organism: others relieve themselves of
the embarrassment by applying universal suffrage to the wages
question. It is needless to say that these platitudes find dupes
by thousands and hundreds of thousands.
The condemnation of political economy has been formulated by
Malthus in this famous passage:--
A man who is born into a world already occupied, his family
unable to support him, and society not requiring his labor,--such
a man, I say, has not the least right to claim any nourishment
whatever: he is really one too many on the earth.
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