It is to place their claim to a
certain surplus not produced by themselves on a true instead of a
fantastic basis.
Socialists seek to base the claim in question, alternately and sometimes
simultaneously, on two grounds--one moral, the other practical--which
are alike futile and fallacious, and are also incompatible with each
other. The former consists of the _a priori_ moral doctrine that every
one has a right to what he produces, and consequently to no more. The
latter consists of an assumption that those who produce most will, in
deference to a standard of right of a wholly different kind, surrender
their own products to those who produce least. The practical assumption
is childish; and the abstract moral doctrine can only lead to a
conclusion the opposite of that which those who appeal to it desire. But
the claim in question may, when reduced to reasonable proportions, be
defended on grounds both moral and practical, nevertheless, and the
present volume aims at rendering these intelligible. Let us return for a
moment to Rousseau and his theory of the social contract. We know to-day
that never in the entire history of mankind did any such conscious
contract as Rousseau imagined take place; but it is nevertheless true
that virtually, and by ultimate implication, something like a contract
or bargain underlies the relation between classes in all states of
society.
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