ABSTRACT
NATIONALlZATION, CO-OPERATION A N D STATE CONTROL
C APITALIST production was, even in its nineteenth-century heyday, criticized on certain counts by a long line of philosophers, idealists and even political econon~ists, by no means SocialistThomas Carlyle, for instance, and John Ruskin, John Stuart Mill and Professor Henry S idgwi~k .~ These counts against capitalism were largely its comlnercialism in supplying only wants for which the individual consumer could pay-his demands-rather than his wants not backed financially, and his (and the nation's) needs. The rich man's fancies and luxuries were found supplied prior to the poor man's barest wants. Even if wealth were equally distributed, with no rich or poor, popular wants, such as alcohol or gaming or tasty foods obtained considerable priority over less unpopular needs such as education or plain but healthy fare. Cakes and ale may be preferred before butter and bread.
