ABSTRACT
Private property confers hardly any political power — certainly less than that conferred by a vote, and much less than that which flows from membership of a trade union. The classes have become social rather than political; they differ by speech, education and occupation and avoid intermarriage. Differences used to be both subjective and objective; now they are merely subjective. Income differences, especially after tax, are small and are not related in any simple way to class differences: bank-clerks earn less than steel workers. A wage-earner can still feel, and not wrongly, that he is ‘working for another man’s profit’. People who work with their hands for wages are very unlikely in fact to get a significant income from privately-held capital. Social service payments are individually small except in cases of illness and unemployment, i.e. cases of incapacity to earn wages. A more promising line of approach than small savings has recently gained upon it: personal insurance.
