spond with the natural inequalities. They no more trouble themselves to inquire whether inequality of conditions—I mean of salaries—is possible, than they do to fix a measure of capacity.[1]
“To each according to his capacity, to each capacity according to its results.”
“To each according to his capital, his labor, and his skill.”
Since the death of St. Simon and Fourier, not one among their numerous disciples has attempted to give to the public a scientific demonstration of this grand maxim; and I would wager a hundred to one that no Fourierist even suspects that this biform aphorism is susceptible of two interpretations.
“To each according to his capacity, to each capacity according to its results.”
“To each according to his capital, his labor, and his skill.”
This proposition, taken, as they say, in sensu obvio—in the sense usually attributed to it—is false, absurd, unjust, contradictory, hostile to liberty, friendly to tyranny, anti-social, and was unluckily framed under the express influence of the property idea.
And, first, capital must be crossed off the list of elements which are entitled to a reward. The Fourierists—as far as I have been able to learn from a few of their pamphlets—deny the right of occupancy, and recognize no basis of property save labor. Starting with a like premise, they would have seen—had they reasoned upon the matter—that capital is a
- ↑ In St. Simon’s system, the St.-Simonian priest determines the capacity of each by virtue of his pontifical infallibility, in imitation of the Roman Church: in Fourier’s, the ranks and merits are decided by vote, in imitation of the constitutional régime. Clearly, the great man is an object of ridicule to the reader; he did not mean to tell his secret.
