ABSTRACT
I think everyone will agree that the most striking fact about the present-day world is the contrast between the vast possibilities of prosperity and the appalling poverty of the majority of the population. Industry and science have made such huge advances that a large improvement in the standard of life, particularly of the workers, is now technically and immediately possible. But the social and economic structure of our western world is clearly of such a kind that we are unable at present to take full advantage of the technical progress which we have already achieved. As a first step towards remedying this paradoxical situation, one may start by trying to understand how it has come about. I wish, therefore, to make an attempt at an objective analysis of what seem to me to be the actual facts of the social situation, rather than a statement of what I would like to happen.
