Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/153

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matter of goods and services which it would consume; and the worker, instead of working to put profit into the pockets of a proprietor employer, would be working to supply the general consumption, as organized, directed and controlled by official administrators.

He would have no more freedom, in fact he would have less, because owing to the cessation of competition and the concentration of the whole organization of industry in official hands, he would have no power of exercising choice between one employer and another. Nevertheless it is possible that the fact that he is working for the general consumer, without the intervention of a profit-making capitalist, might give him a feeling of satisfaction which would very much more than balance his loss of choice between one employer and another; while at the same time the fact that the official administration would, by a democratic organization of society, be to a certain extent based upon the wishes and ideals of himself and his fellows, might enable him to believe that he was really only working for himself, and therefore give him that sense of freedom which is nearly as good as its actual possession.

The Socialistic artisan working in a State