382 Insurance and Gambling. [CHAP. xv. 



too peremptorily urged upon every one, and the practice of 

 gambling too universally regarded as involving a sacrifice of 

 real self-interest, as being in fact little better than a per 

 sistent blunder. The assumption in question seems to be 

 extracted from the acknowledged advantages of insurance, 

 and then invoked to condemn the practice of gambling. But 

 in so doing the fact does not seem to be sufficiently recog 

 nized that the latter practice, if we merely look to the ex 

 tent and antiquity of the tacit vote of mankind in its favour, 

 might surely claim to carry the day. 



It is of course obvious that in all cases with which we 

 are concerned, the aggregate wealth is unaltered; money 

 being merely transferred from one person to another. The 

 loss of one is precisely equivalent to the gain of another. 

 At least this is the approximation to the truth with which we 

 find it convenient to start 1 . Now if the happiness which is 

 yielded by wealth were always in direct proportion to its 

 amount, it is not easy to see why insurance should be advo 

 cated or gambling condemned. In the case of the latter this 

 is obvious enough. I have lost 50, say, but others (one or 

 more as the case may be) have gained it, and the increase 

 of their happiness would exactly balance the diminution of 

 mine. In the case of Insurance there is a slight complica 

 tion, arising from the fact that the falling in of the policy 

 does not happen at random (otherwise, as already pointed 



1 Of course, if we introduce con- otherwise be the case. Again, in 



siderations of Political Economy, the case of gambling, a large loss of 



corrections will have to be made. capital by any one will almost neces- 



For one thing, every Insurance Office sarily involve an actual destruction 



is, as De Morgan repeatedly insists, of wealth; to say nothing of the 



a Savings Bank as well as an Insur- fact that, practically, gambling often 



ance Office. The Office invests the causes a constant transfer of wealth 



premiums, and can therefore afford from productive to unproductive pur- 



to pay a larger sum than would poses. 



