. And a
plan of Society which each member of Society is striving to subvert is
doomed from its birth.

And the fourth count in the indictment of Socialism is that it is
contradictory to Nature to such a degree as to make its permanence
unthinkable because destructive not only of human comfort and happiness
but of human life.

Expressed in briefest form the four counts are as follows[3]:

I. Public servants produce less for consumption than private workers.
Decrease of consumption means increase of human misery. Therefore,
Socialism, making all of us public servants would increase human misery.

II. Brains, not Labor, creates the social dividend. Ability is
demonstrated only under strenuous competition inspired by self-interest.
Therefore, Socialism, excluding competition inspired by self-interest
would obliterate the social dividend.

III. The accumulating man inspired by selfishness is essential to
any social saving. Social saving is essential to the support of
an increasing population. Therefore, Socialism by eliminating the
Capitalist would make life impossible to many who now live.

IV. To fight Nature is to die. Socialism fights Nature. Therefore,
Socialism would destroy the race.

It is a matter of premises, and I have already said that the premises in
these syllogisms can neither be proved or disproved. People, I suppose,
will continue to fight over them but I shall not. No human life is long
enough and no human intellect strong enough to demonstrate or disprove
any one of them. Experimentally mankind is always somewhere trying out
one or the other of these postulates but success or failure only proves
that they did or did not prove true in that particular case.

An underlying fallacy of Socialism is the concept that poverty or at
least extreme poverty, can be banished from the world. It cannot. It
is impossible for the effective to produce and save as fast as the
ineffective will waste and destroy if they can get at it. No truth in
the Bible is more profound than the saying: "The poor ye have always
with you."

The concept is based upon an unfounded belief in the competence of the
average man. He is not nearly so competent an animal as he has taught
himself to believe. We read our Nordau and with but the very slightest
ability to judge what he says we declare him a libeler. We read our Le
Bon and declare off-hand that it is absurd and wicked to say that
the crowd has no more sense than a flock of sh