The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/83

Exported from Wikisource on September 9, 2024

down by himself in a wilderness, with no society to create wealth for him. Nearly all wealth is in fact more or less socially created, just as it may also be said that most forms of human society are to a great extent created by wealth or the desire to possess wealth. It is in fact, as has been pointed out by Locke in his Essay on Civilization, for the purpose of the mutual protection of their lives and property that men originally formed themselves into civilized societies.[1]

Moreover, it will be noted that Mr. Macdonald in his analysis of the origin of rent, which seems to be much closer to the actual facts of the case than the sketch produced by Mr. Shaw's brilliant imagination, shows that rent was originally earned by captains who were settled upon the land in return for military services. According to him therefore the original owners of land received it in return for services rendered in the course of military occupation. Modern opinion in its revolt against views which we now stigmatize as Prussianism or militarism may argue that this would not now be regarded as an equitable

1. ↑ Cf. Plato, Republic, Book II, "A State arises out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants."—(Jowett's translation.)

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Title page

The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/83

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