224 GENEKAL INCEEASE OF WAGES, ETC. 



that 64 per cent, of the value and 92 per cent, of the number 

 of all dwelling houses in Great Britain are connected with 

 those (certainly not the rich) living in houses under ,£30 

 annual rental. 



Although the nominal incomes of the rich appear to 

 absorb a far greater proportion of the aggregate nominal 

 earnings than their proportional numbers as units of the 

 population, yet it must be borne in mind that a reference to 

 the mere nominal incomes is a most deceptive guide as 

 regards the individual consumption of the rich ; for in the 

 latter are aggregated much of the incomes of vast numbers 

 of professional classes and domestic servants, which, being 

 reckoned again and again as distinct incomes, although 

 derived chiefly from the expenditure of the rich, make 

 the nominal aggregate of the income of the rich and of total 

 income enormously above the true net income of both the 

 rich and the national aggregate. That is, the real incomes of 

 individuals are counted over and over again, and thus falsify 

 the true proportions of net personal income coming to rich 

 and poor respectively. 



In opposition to Mr. Ogilvy's statement, then, I may con- 

 fidently repeat part of what I have already dealt with more 

 fully in a former chapter of "Root Matters in Social and 

 Economic Problems " regarding 



Distribution and Consumption of Wealth. 



Under this heading I have observed, " There are many 

 fallacies current with respect to the creation and distribution 

 of wealth. If all the enormous wealth year by year created 

 by (1), stored fruits of previous labour (Capital — of which 

 steam engines alone represent approximately the work of 

 1,000,000,000 men, or more than the physical energy devoted 

 to the creation of fresh wealth, than double the working 

 population of the earth), (2), current labour, and (3), the 

 gratuitous forces of nature, were directly devoted to con- 

 sumption or enjoyment, no doubt the proportion per head 

 alloted to the industrial labourer would be small indeed in 

 comparison with the rich." 



But the human body, whether rich or poor, can only 

 consume or assimilate a certain quantity of food per day. 

 The old, sickly, and very young, cannot consume or assimilate 

 as much as the strong healthy persons of youth and prime of 

 life. Health and hard physical labour cause the body to burn 

 more food, and the greater tear and waste consumes more 

 weight of the products of the sheep and cotton plant just for 

 the same reason as greater energy exhausted by a steam 

 engine demands a much higher consumption of fuel and a 

 much greater waste of parts in tear and wear. 



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