everybody who is alive is to be made really comfortable, whether he or she works or idles; for presumably Mr. Cole when he says "payment" means the regular pay of the Guildsman. He does not deal with the delicate question as to whether this payment is to be made to those whose work is wanted, but who do not want to work, and here of course we come up against the great problem, whether under such schemes as these, anything like the same efficiency of work can be expected as is produced now by the system of private gain.
At present if a man will not work he has, unless he owns private means, to fall back upon the degradation of the workhouse, or outdoor relief, or lead a life of precarious penury. Would the ordinary average man, if the mere fact that he were alive gave him a claim apparently to full payment, trouble to work much? A large number of people work, and work very well, for the mere pleasure of working, apart from any question of payment. But as human nature is at present, it is safe to say that if the amount of work which everybody did were left to his own choice, and if everybody whether they worked or not, were to receive full payment out of the common fund of production, any such fund would dwindle so rapidly that
