ABSTRACT
Let us briefly examine the differences in question. In Western ‘civilization’ the order of society we accept is one divided into classes based on the holding of property; generally speaking, the holding of as much property as possible is the accepted ideal towards which the desires and efforts of individuals are directed. A usual habit of middle-class persons is to choose the highest standard of life of which income appears to admit, and then for the rest of life pity themselves as ‘poor’ people without any margin, exposed by an unjust income tax to cruel financial vicissitudes. The mass of men and women work primarily for themselves and their families, save for them, resist increases of income tax and death duties, in order that the family may attain to, and preserve, as high a social standing as possible. A small minority do, of course, think it right to work for the more equal distribution of wealth, a still smaller minority of ‘advanced’ Socialists would like to see this effected relatively rapidly. But the great majority of people still accept our order of society with its great disparities of wealth and position, as they accept the weather, and are not 21ashamed to pray for sunshine on their particular path.
