WHO PAYS THE BILL? 59 



and can get in exchange for money, including services 

 rendered. For example, a doctor's visit is goods. 



The citizens of any country, as a whole, are producing 

 an enormous mass of goods ; and these goods are being 

 shared out amongst all these citizens after they are made. 

 K they are not being shared out fairly, reform in this 

 direction is needed. Such reforms raise very important 

 and dilB&cult questions, but they are not the subject of this 

 book. What we want here to emphasize is that, when a 

 number of men fail to do a fair day's work, the mass of 

 goods to be shared out amongst all our citizens is in con- 

 sequence so much the smaller. Some or all of us will 

 then suffer by getting a smaller amount of goods as our 

 share. An idle man generally injures many besides himself. 



Thus we see that if all the unfit and all the inferior, 

 together with all those officials and attendants whose 

 time is taken up in attending to them, were to do a good 

 day's work in producing useful goods, the amount of such 

 goods available for distribution would be enormously 

 increased. In a previous chapter it was seen how large 

 are the numbers of the mentally defective ; and to give an 

 idea of the importance of this subject many other facts 

 might also be mentioned. For example, in England and 

 Wales nearly 70,000 police are employed; whilst in every 

 year the amount of working time lost by sickness by all 

 persons insured by the State, if added together, would 

 amount to 270,000 years. Thus, by putting money out of 

 consideration, it is easy to realize how great would be the 

 benefits to all which would result from any diminution in 

 the numbers of the unfit and the inferior. 



There are always a large number of men either out of 

 emplojmaent or winning a wage below the minimum ; and 

 for this state of things there are several reasons. Many of 

 these unemployed persons would have been willing and 

 able to win that wage if they had been either better trained 

 or given a better start in life ; and of course all that can 

 reasonably be done to remedy this evil should be done. 

 When trade is brisk, the majority of those not winning a 



