And consideration will be useful only if it is in cold blood, absolutely without sentiment, and especially without even sub-conscious assumption or imagination that the condition of the unfortunate, or less fortunate, would or would not be improved by Socialism, or whether mankind can or cannot be made happier by attempts to control economic conditions by interference with the natural working out of economic results as the resultant of opposing pressure of individual interests.  And do not call me a brute if I reach the conclusion that human selfishness is the hope of the race.

Because selfishness inspires to energetic action which means the largest possible aggregate production which is the first essential prerequisite to abundance for all.  It is useless to talk about better distribution until the commodities exist to be distributed.  And there is no other such spur to production as the expectation of personal profit.  The pieceworker with more satisfaction to himself and profit to the world will produce far more than he would turn out under a daily wage if his earnings are thereby increased.  And there are no others who give so little for what they receive as those who work for the public.

The first count in the case against Socialism is that by making the majority of workers public servants without the stimulus of selfishness it would increase human misery by reducing the aggregate of production and therefore the possible per capita consumption.

That, however, is on the surface.  Let us bore a little deeper toward the core of the subject.  It is a fundamental fallacy of Socialism that all gain is the result of Labor and that therefore all gain belongs to Labor - the term “Labor” in practice meaning the great majority of laborers who are manual workers[1].

Of course Labor is essential to production — so is Capital, which we shall come to later — and as between two things, both essential, it is perhaps impossible to conceive of one or the other as superior.

But there is another element, also essential, but in a class so much above the other two essential elements, that it is not too much to say that without it there could be no production adequate to sustain for more than a brief time any great population.  And that element is Brains.  It is not to Labor but to the human intellect as developed in the exceptional man that we owe all that exists, outside of Nature, which we count valuable, and the ability to so use the resources of Nature as to enable mankind to live.  If products were to be divided among mankind so that each should receive according to his contribution to the possibilities of production, after the exceptional men had received their just dues, there would be very little left for the rest of us.  When European races first discovered this continent it probably supported less than one million souls, and the number was not increasing.  That it will ultimately support some hundreds of millions is due to the dealings of the human intellect with Nature.  Brains do not get, do not ask, do not expect and could not use what would rightfully come to them.