Imperialism, A Study

for savings than can be serviceably employed?” Another way of putting the same question is this, “Why should not the pressure of present wants keep pace with every possibility of satisfying them?” The answer to these pertinent questions carries us to the broadest issue of the distribution of wealth. If a tendency to distribute income or consuming power according to needs were operative, it is evident that consumption would rise with every rise of producing power, for human needs are illimitable, and there could be no excess of saving. But it is quite otherwise in a state of economic society where distribution has no fixed relation to needs, but is determined by other conditions which assign to some people a consuming power vastly in excess of needs or possible uses, while others are destitute of consuming power enough to satisfy even the full demands of physical efficiency. The following illustration may serve to make the issue clear. “The volume of production has been constantly rising owing to the development of modern machinery. There are two main channels to carry off these products – one channel carrying off the product destined to be consumed by the workers, and the other channel carrying off the remainder to the rich. The workers’ channel is in rock-bound banks that cannot enlarge, owing to the competitive wage system preventing wages rising pro rata with increased efficiency. Wages are based upon cost of living, and not upon efficiency of labour. The miner in the poor mine gets the same wages per day as the miner in the adjoining rich mine. The owner of the rich mine gets the advantage – not his labourer. The channel which conveys the goods destined to supply the rich is itself divided into two streams. One stream carries off what the rich ‘spend’ on themselves for the necessities and luxuries of life. The other is simply an ‘overflow’ stream carrying off their ‘savings.’ The channel for spending, i.e. the amount wasted by the rich in luxuries, may broaden somewhat, but owing to the small number of those rich enough to indulge in whims it can never be greatly enlarged, and at any rate it bears such a small proportion to the other channel that in no event can much hope of avoiding a flood of capital be hoped for from this