economic progress is to move along
right lines, is to try to make sure that we are not, in these days of
alleged enlightenment, committing out of mere stupidity and
thoughtlessness, the crime which Charles the Second perpetrated for his
own amusement. He gave large tracts of England to his mistresses because
they pleased his roving fancy. Now the power to dispense wealth has
passed into the hands of the people, who buy the goods and services
produced, and so decide what goods and services will find a market, and
so will enrich their producers. Are we making much better use of it? On
the whole, much better; but we still make far too many mistakes. The
people to whom nowadays we give big fortunes, though they include a
large number of organizers of useful industry, also number within their
ranks a crowd of hangers on such as bookmakers, sharepushers, and
vendors of patent pills or bad stuff to read. These folk, and others,
live on our vices and stupidities, and it is our fault that they can do
so. Because a large section of the public likes to gamble away its money
on the Stock Exchange, substantial fortunes have been founded by those
who have provided the public with this means of amusement. Because the
public likes to be persuaded by the clamour of cheapjack advertisement
that its inside wants certain medicines, and that these medicines are
worth buying at a price that makes the vendor a millionaire, there he is
with his million. Some people say that he has swindled the public. The
public has swindled itself by allowing him to foist stuff down its
throat on terms which give him, and his heirs and assigns after him, all
the control over the work and wealth of the world that is implied by the
possession of a million. When we buy rubbish we do not only waste our
money to our own harm, but, under the conditions of modern society, we
put the sellers of rubbish in command of the world, as far as the money
power commands it, which is a good deal further than is pleasing.

Hence it is that when some of those who question the right of capital to
its reward, do so on the ground that capital is often acquired by
questionable means, they are barking up the wrong tree. Capital can only
be acquired by selling something to you and me. If you and I had more
sense in the matter of what we buy, capital could not be acquired by
questionable means. By our greed and wastefulness we give fortunes to
bookmakers, market-riggers and money-lender