profit by the ruinous labors of the working-men, because, if I do not, another will. Something like the argument that I must drink wine that is injurious to me, because it has been bought, and, if I do not drink it, others will do so.
According to another argument, it is even beneficial to the working-men to employ their labors in producing luxuries, as in this way we provide them with money, i.e. the means of subsistence; as if we could not provide them with the means of subsistence in any other way than by making them produce articles injurious to them and superfluous to us.
But according to the argument now most widely spread, it appears that, since there is such a thing as division of labor, any work upon which a man is engaged, whether he be a government official, priest, landowner, manufacturer, or merchant, is so useful that it fully compensates for the labor of the working-classes by which he profits. One serves the State, another the Church, a third science, a fourth art, and a fifth serves those who serve the State, science, and art; and all are firmly convinced that what they give to mankind certainly compensates for all they take. And it is astonishing how, while continually augmenting their luxurious requirements without increasing their activity, these people continue to be certain that their activity compensates for all that they consume.
Whereas, if you listen to these people's judgment of one another, it appears that each individual is far from being worth what he consumes. Government officials say that the work of the landlords is not worth what they spend, landlords say the same about merchants, and merchants about government officials, and so on. But this does not disconcert them, and they continue to assure men that they, each of them, profit by the labor of others exactly in proportion as they give to others. So that the payment is not determined by the work, but the value of the imaginary work is determined by the payment. So do they assure each other, but they know perfectly well in the depth of their soul that all their
