WEBVTT NOTE XXXV. The Welfare Principle versus the Market Principle 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 CHAPTER 35 THE WELFARE PRINCIPLE VERSUS THE MARKET PRINCIPLE 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:11.000 1. THE CASE AGAINST THE MARKET ECONOMY 3 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:21.000 The objections which the various schools of social politique raise against the market economy are based on very bad economics. 4 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:28.000 They repeat again and again all the errors that the economists long ago exploded. 5 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:40.000 They blame the market economy for the consequences of the very anti-capitalistic policies which they themselves advocate as necessary and beneficial reforms. 6 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:48.000 They fix on the market economy the responsibility for the inevitable failure and frustration of interventionism. 7 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:59.000 These propagandists must finally admit that the market economy is after all not so bad as their unorthodox doctrines paint it. 8 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:07.000 It delivers the goods. From day to day it increases the quantity and improves the quality of products. 9 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:10.000 It has brought about unprecedented wealth. 10 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:11.000 Health. 11 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:17.500 But, objects the champion of interventionism, it is deficient from what he calls the social 12 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:19.040 point of view. 13 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:22.500 It has not wiped out poverty and destitution. 14 00:01:22.500 --> 00:01:28.480 It is a system that grants privileges to a minority, an upper class of rich people, at 15 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:31.400 the expense of the immense majority. 16 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:33.640 It is an unfair system. 17 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:39.800 The principle of welfare must be substituted for that of profits. 18 00:01:39.800 --> 00:01:45.800 We may try, for the sake of argument, to interpret the concept of welfare in such a way that 19 00:01:45.800 --> 00:01:52.480 its acceptance by the immense majority of non-ascetic people would be probable. 20 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:58.400 The better we succeed in these endeavors, the more we deprive the idea of welfare of 21 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:02.040 any concrete meaning and content. 22 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:09.040 It turns into a colorless paraphrase of the fundamental category of human action, namely 23 00:02:09.040 --> 00:02:14.200 the urge to remove uneasiness as far as possible. 24 00:02:14.200 --> 00:02:20.000 As it is universally recognized that this goal can be more readily and even exclusively 25 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:26.380 attained by social division of labor, men cooperate within the framework of societal 26 00:02:26.380 --> 00:02:28.560 bonds. 27 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:35.200 Social man, as differentiated from autarkic man, must necessarily modify his original 28 00:02:35.200 --> 00:02:41.400 Social-biological indifference to the well-being of people beyond his own family. 29 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:47.800 He must adjust his conduct to the requirements of social cooperation, and look upon his fellow 30 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:53.280 men's success as an indispensable condition of his own. 31 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:58.760 From this point of view, one may describe the objective of social cooperation as the 32 00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:03.440 realization of the greatest happiness of the greatest number. 33 00:03:03.440 --> 00:03:08.680 Hardly anybody would venture to object to this definition of the most desirable state 34 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:15.440 of affairs and to contend that it is not a good thing to see as many people as possible 35 00:03:15.440 --> 00:03:17.920 as happy as possible. 36 00:03:17.920 --> 00:03:23.660 All the attacks directed against the Bentham formula have centered around ambiguities or 37 00:03:23.660 --> 00:03:28.040 misunderstandings concerning the notion of happiness. 38 00:03:28.040 --> 00:03:34.480 They have not affected the postulate that the good, whatever it may be, should be imparted 39 00:03:34.480 --> 00:03:36.400 to the greatest number. 40 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:43.160 However, if we interpret welfare in this manner, the concept becomes meaningless. 41 00:03:43.160 --> 00:03:49.300 It can be invoked for the justification of every variety of social organization. 42 00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:54.720 It is a fact that some of the defenders of Negro slavery contended that slavery is the 43 00:03:54.720 --> 00:04:01.400 the best means of making the Negroes happy, and that today in the South, many whites sincerely 44 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:07.640 believe that rigid segregation is beneficial no less to the colored men than it allegedly 45 00:04:07.640 --> 00:04:09.900 is to the white men. 46 00:04:09.900 --> 00:04:16.680 The main thesis of racism of the Gabinot and Nazi variety is that the hegemony of the superior 47 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:22.880 races is salutary to the true interests even of the inferior races. 48 00:04:22.880 --> 00:04:28.480 A principle that is broad enough to cover all doctrines, however conflicting with one 49 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:31.840 another, is of no use at all. 50 00:04:31.840 --> 00:04:38.520 But in the mouths of the welfare propagandists, the notion of welfare has a definite meaning. 51 00:04:38.520 --> 00:04:45.160 They intentionally employ a term, the generally accepted connotation of which, precludes any 52 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.160 opposition. 53 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:54.700 So decent man likes to be so rash as to raise objections against the realization of welfare. 54 00:04:54.700 --> 00:05:00.560 In arrogating to themselves the exclusive right to call their own program the program 55 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:08.220 of welfare, the welfare propagandists want to triumph by means of a cheap logical trick. 56 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:14.100 They want to render their ideas safe against criticism by attributing to them an appellation 57 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:17.020 which is cherished by everybody. 58 00:05:17.020 --> 00:05:23.300 Their terminology already implies that all opponents are ill-intentioned scoundrels eager 59 00:05:23.300 --> 00:05:29.880 to foster their selfish interests to the prejudice of the majority of good people. 60 00:05:29.880 --> 00:05:35.740 The plight of Western civilization consists precisely in the fact that serious people 61 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:42.380 can resort to such syllogistic artifices without encountering sharp rebuke. 62 00:05:42.380 --> 00:05:45.900 There are only two explanations open. 63 00:05:45.900 --> 00:05:53.020 Either these self-styled welfare economists are themselves not aware of the logical inadmissibility 64 00:05:53.020 --> 00:05:59.560 of their procedure, in which case they lack the indispensable power of reasoning, or they 65 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:05.600 have chosen this mode of arguing purposely in order to find shelter for their fallacies 66 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:11.700 behind a word which is intended beforehand to disarm all opponents. 67 00:06:11.700 --> 00:06:16.080 In each case, their own acts condemn them. 68 00:06:16.080 --> 00:06:22.440 There is no need to add anything to the disquisitions of the preceding chapters concerning the effects 69 00:06:22.440 --> 00:06:25.900 of all varieties of interventionism. 70 00:06:25.900 --> 00:06:31.560 The ponderous volumes of welfare economics have not brought forth any arguments that 71 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:34.720 could invalidate our conclusions. 72 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:41.100 The only task that remains is to examine the critical part of the welfare propagandists' 73 00:06:41.100 --> 00:06:45.260 Work, Their Indictment of the Market Economy. 74 00:06:45.260 --> 00:06:51.940 All this passionate talk of the welfare school ultimately boils down to three points. 75 00:06:51.940 --> 00:06:59.460 Capitalism is bad, they say, because there is poverty, inequality of incomes and wealth, 76 00:06:59.460 --> 00:07:01.580 and insecurity. 77 00:07:01.580 --> 00:07:03.020 2. 78 00:07:03.020 --> 00:07:05.580 Poverty. 79 00:07:05.580 --> 00:07:12.860 We may depict conditions of a society of agriculturists in which every member tills a piece of land 80 00:07:12.860 --> 00:07:20.180 large enough to provide himself and his family with the indispensable necessities of life. 81 00:07:20.180 --> 00:07:26.540 We may include in such a picture the existence of a few specialists, artisans like smiths 82 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:29.580 and professional men like doctors. 83 00:07:29.580 --> 00:07:35.660 We may even go further and assume that some men do not own a farm, but work as laborers 84 00:07:35.660 --> 00:07:38.100 on other people's farms. 85 00:07:38.100 --> 00:07:43.420 The employer remunerates them for their help and takes care of them when sickness or old 86 00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:46.340 age disables them. 87 00:07:46.340 --> 00:07:52.520 This scheme of an ideal society was at the bottom of many utopian plans. 88 00:07:52.520 --> 00:07:58.180 It was, by and large, realized for some time in some communities. 89 00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:03.580 The nearest approach to its realization was probably the commonwealth which the Jesuit 90 00:08:03.580 --> 00:08:08.940 Padres established in the country which is today Paraguay. 91 00:08:08.940 --> 00:08:26.880 There 92 00:08:26.880 --> 00:08:33.760 Society is that the increase in population must result in progressive poverty. 93 00:08:33.760 --> 00:08:39.560 If the estate of a deceased farmer is divided among his children, the holdings finally become 94 00:08:39.560 --> 00:08:46.400 so small that they can no longer provide sufficient sustenance for a family. 95 00:08:46.400 --> 00:08:51.160 Everybody is a landowner, but everybody is extremely poor. 96 00:08:51.160 --> 00:08:56.960 Conditions as they prevail in large areas of China provide a sad illustration of the 97 00:08:56.960 --> 00:09:00.680 misery of the tillers of small parcels. 98 00:09:00.680 --> 00:09:08.040 The alternative to this outcome is the emergence of a huge mass of landless proletarians. 99 00:09:08.040 --> 00:09:14.440 Then a wide gap separates the disinherited paupers from the fortunate farmers. 100 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:21.920 They are a class of pariahs whose very existence presents society with an insoluble problem. 101 00:09:21.920 --> 00:09:25.040 They search in vain for a livelihood. 102 00:09:25.040 --> 00:09:26.960 Society has no use for them. 103 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:29.700 They are destitute. 104 00:09:29.700 --> 00:09:35.800 When in the ages preceding the rise of modern capitalism, the statesmen, philosophers and 105 00:09:35.800 --> 00:09:43.760 laws referred to the poor and to the problems of poverty, they meant these supernumerary 106 00:09:43.760 --> 00:09:53.400 Laissez-faire and its offshoot, industrialism, converted the employable poor into wage earners. 107 00:09:53.400 --> 00:10:00.600 In the unhampered market society, there are people with higher and people with lower incomes. 108 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:07.360 There are no longer men who, although able and ready to work, cannot find regular jobs 109 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:13.160 because there is no room left for them in the social system of production. 110 00:10:13.160 --> 00:10:19.720 But liberalism and capitalism were, even in their heyday, limited to comparatively small 111 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:25.440 areas of Western and Central Europe, North America and Australia. 112 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:31.440 In the rest of the world, hundreds of millions still vegetate on the verge of starvation. 113 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:38.000 They are poor or paupers in the old sense of the term, supernumerary and superfluous, 114 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:43.360 A Burden to Themselves and a Latent Threat to the Minority of Their More Lucky Fellow 115 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:45.360 Citizens 116 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:51.700 The penury of these miserable masses of, in the main, colored people, is not caused by 117 00:10:51.700 --> 00:10:56.580 capitalism, but by the absence of capitalism. 118 00:10:56.580 --> 00:11:01.380 But for the triumph of laissez-faire, the lot of the peoples of Western Europe would 119 00:11:01.380 --> 00:11:05.300 have been even worse than that of the Coolies. 120 00:11:05.300 --> 00:11:12.100 What is wrong with Asia is that the per capita quota of capital invested is extremely low 121 00:11:12.100 --> 00:11:16.220 when compared with the capital equipment of the West. 122 00:11:16.220 --> 00:11:22.060 The prevailing ideology and the social system, which is its offshoot, check the evolution 123 00:11:22.060 --> 00:11:25.300 of profit-seeking entrepreneurship. 124 00:11:25.300 --> 00:11:32.820 There is very little domestic capital accumulation and manifest hostility to foreign investors. 125 00:11:32.820 --> 00:11:38.540 In many of these countries, the increase in population figures even outruns the increase 126 00:11:38.540 --> 00:11:41.140 in capital available. 127 00:11:41.140 --> 00:11:46.860 It is false to blame the European powers for the poverty of the masses in their colonial 128 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:48.520 empires. 129 00:11:48.520 --> 00:11:54.860 In investing capital, the foreign rulers did all they could do for an improvement in material 130 00:11:54.860 --> 00:11:55.860 well-being. 131 00:11:55.860 --> 00:12:01.500 It is not the fault of the whites that the Oriental peoples are reluctant to abandon 132 00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:07.440 and their traditional tenets and abhor capitalism as an alien ideology. 133 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:13.980 They will very soon have succeeded in freeing themselves entirely from foreign domination. 134 00:12:13.980 --> 00:12:20.540 Then they will probably turn toward various brands of regimentation and totalitarianism. 135 00:12:20.540 --> 00:12:27.580 These will not solve their economic problems and will not make their masses more prosperous. 136 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:34.340 As far as there is unhampered capitalism, there is no longer any question of poverty 137 00:12:34.340 --> 00:12:40.780 in the sense in which this term is applied to the conditions of a non-capitalist society. 138 00:12:40.780 --> 00:12:47.140 The increase in population figures does not create supernumerary mouths, but additional 139 00:12:47.140 --> 00:12:51.920 hands whose employment produces additional wealth. 140 00:12:51.920 --> 00:12:55.620 There are no able-bodied paupers. 141 00:12:55.620 --> 00:13:01.520 Even from the point of view of the economically backward nations, the conflicts between capital 142 00:13:01.520 --> 00:13:09.120 and labor in the capitalist countries appear as conflicts within a privileged upper class. 143 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:16.580 In the eyes of an Indian or a Chinese coulee, the American automobile worker is an aristocrat. 144 00:13:16.580 --> 00:13:24.080 He is a man who belongs to the 2% of the earth's population whose income is highest. 145 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:30.200 Not only the colored races, but also the Slavs, the Arabs, and some other peoples look upon 146 00:13:30.200 --> 00:13:37.260 the average income of the citizens of the capitalistic countries, about 12 or 15 percent 147 00:13:37.260 --> 00:13:44.160 of the total of mankind, as a curtailment of their own material well-being. 148 00:13:44.160 --> 00:13:50.680 They fail to realize that the prosperity of these allegedly privileged groups is, apart 149 00:13:50.680 --> 00:13:56.800 from the effects of migration barriers not paid for by their own poverty, and that the 150 00:13:56.800 --> 00:14:04.040 main obstacle to the improvement of their own conditions is their abhorrence of capitalism. 151 00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:09.320 Within the frame of capitalism, the notion of poverty refers only to those people who 152 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:13.200 are unable to take care of themselves. 153 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:18.620 Even if we disregard the case of children, we must realize that there will always be 154 00:14:18.620 --> 00:14:26.420 be such unemployables. Capitalism in improving the masses standard of living, hygienic conditions 155 00:14:26.420 --> 00:14:34.180 and methods of prophylactics and therapeutics does not remove bodily incapacity. It is true 156 00:14:34.180 --> 00:14:40.640 that today many people who in the past would have been doomed to lifelong disability are 157 00:14:40.640 --> 00:14:48.240 restored to full vigor. But on the other hand, many whom innate defects, sickness or accidents 158 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:54.680 would have extinguished sooner in earlier days, survive, as permanently incapacitated 159 00:14:54.680 --> 00:14:55.680 people. 160 00:14:55.680 --> 00:15:01.960 Moreover, the prolongation of the average length of life tends toward an increase in 161 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:07.240 the number of the aged who are no longer able to earn a living. 162 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:15.200 The problem of the incapacitated is a specific problem of human civilization and of society. 163 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:17.840 Disabled animals must perish quickly. 164 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:23.960 They either die of starvation or fall prey to the foes of their species. 165 00:15:23.960 --> 00:15:27.960 Savage man had no pity on those who were substandard. 166 00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:34.440 With regard to them, many tribes practiced those barbaric methods of ruthless extirpation 167 00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:38.000 to which the Nazis resorted in our time. 168 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:44.680 The very existence of a comparatively great number of invalids is, however paradoxical, 169 00:15:44.680 --> 00:15:51.000 A Characteristic Mark of Civilization and Material Well-Being. 170 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:55.920 Provision for those invalids who lack means of sustenance and are not taken care of by 171 00:15:55.920 --> 00:16:01.300 their next of kin has long been considered a work of charity. 172 00:16:01.300 --> 00:16:08.620 The funds needed have sometimes been provided by governments, more often by voluntary contributions. 173 00:16:08.620 --> 00:16:14.200 The Catholic orders and congregations and some Protestant institutions have accomplished 174 00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:19.800 marvels in collecting such contributions and in using them properly. 175 00:16:19.800 --> 00:16:27.240 Today there are also many non-denominational establishments vying with them in noble rivalry. 176 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:31.400 The charity system is criticized for two defects. 177 00:16:31.400 --> 00:16:34.480 One is the paucity of the means available. 178 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:40.880 However, the more capitalism progresses and increases wealth, the more sufficient become 179 00:16:40.880 --> 00:16:43.120 the charity funds. 180 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:48.000 On the one hand, people are more ready to donate in proportion to the improvement in 181 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:50.200 their own well-being. 182 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:55.680 On the other hand, the number of the needy drops concomitantly. 183 00:16:55.680 --> 00:17:01.240 Even for those with moderate incomes, the opportunity is offered by saving and insurance 184 00:17:01.240 --> 00:17:07.760 policies to provide for accidents, sickness, old age, the education of their children, 185 00:17:07.760 --> 00:17:10.880 and the support of widows and orphans. 186 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:15.880 It is highly probable that the funds of the charitable institutions would be sufficient 187 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:22.160 in the capitalist countries if interventionism were not to sabotage the essential institutions 188 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.520 of the market economy. 189 00:17:24.520 --> 00:17:30.720 Credit expansion and inflationary increase of the quantity of money frustrate the common 190 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:37.040 man's attempts to save and to accumulate reserves for less propitious days. 191 00:17:37.040 --> 00:17:42.560 But the other procedures of interventionism are hardly less injurious to the vital interests 192 00:17:42.560 --> 00:17:48.360 of the wage earners and salaried employees, the professions and the owners of small-sized 193 00:17:48.360 --> 00:17:49.800 business. 194 00:17:49.800 --> 00:17:56.800 The greater part of those assisted by charitable institutions are needy only because interventionism 195 00:17:56.800 --> 00:17:59.300 has made them so. 196 00:17:59.300 --> 00:18:05.240 On the other hand, inflation and the endeavors to lower the rate of interest below the potential 197 00:18:05.240 --> 00:18:12.240 The second defect charged to the charity system is that it is charity and compassion only. 198 00:18:35.240 --> 00:18:39.960 The indigent has no claim to the kindness shown to him. 199 00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:45.680 He depends on the mercy of benevolent people, on the feelings of tenderness which his distress 200 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:47.240 arouses. 201 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:52.320 What he receives is a voluntary gift for which he must be grateful. 202 00:18:52.320 --> 00:18:56.040 To be an almsman is shameful and humiliating. 203 00:18:56.040 --> 00:19:01.040 It is an unbearable condition for a self-respecting man. 204 00:19:01.040 --> 00:19:03.560 These complaints are justified. 205 00:19:03.560 --> 00:19:08.840 Such shortcomings do indeed inhere in all kinds of charity. 206 00:19:08.840 --> 00:19:13.160 It is a system that corrupts both givers and receivers. 207 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:17.960 It makes the former self-righteous and the latter submissive and cringing. 208 00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:25.280 However, it is only the mentality of a capitalistic environment that makes people feel the indignity 209 00:19:25.280 --> 00:19:28.920 of giving and receiving alms. 210 00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:34.920 of the field of the cash nexus and of deals transacted between buyers and sellers in a 211 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:42.020 purely businesslike manner, all inter-human relations are tainted by the same failing. 212 00:19:42.020 --> 00:19:48.360 It is precisely the absence of this personal element in market transactions that all those 213 00:19:48.360 --> 00:19:54.540 deplore who blame capitalism for hard-heartedness and callousness. 214 00:19:54.540 --> 00:20:02.500 In the eyes of such critics, cooperation under the do-ut-des principle dehumanizes all societal 215 00:20:02.500 --> 00:20:03.980 bonds. 216 00:20:03.980 --> 00:20:10.480 It substitutes contracts for brotherly love and readiness to help one another. 217 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:16.980 These critics indict the legal order of capitalism for its neglect of the human side. 218 00:20:16.980 --> 00:20:22.420 They are inconsistent when they blame the charity system for its reliance upon feelings 219 00:20:22.420 --> 00:20:24.860 of Mercy. 220 00:20:24.860 --> 00:20:31.300 Feudal society was founded on acts of grace and on the gratitude of those favored. 221 00:20:31.300 --> 00:20:37.060 The mighty overlord bestowed a benefit upon the vassal, and the latter owed him personal 222 00:20:37.060 --> 00:20:39.220 fidelity. 223 00:20:39.220 --> 00:20:45.180 Conditions were human insofar as the subordinates had to kiss their superiors' hands and to 224 00:20:45.180 --> 00:20:47.700 show allegiance to them. 225 00:20:47.700 --> 00:20:54.560 In a feudal environment, the element of grace inherent in charitable acts did not give offense. 226 00:20:54.560 --> 00:20:59.500 It agreed with the generally accepted ideology and practice. 227 00:20:59.500 --> 00:21:06.160 It is only in the setting of a society based entirely upon contractual bonds that the idea 228 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:13.400 emerged of giving to the indigent a legal claim, an actionable title, to sustenance 229 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:15.700 against society. 230 00:21:15.700 --> 00:21:21.340 The metaphysical arguments advanced in favor of such a right to sustenance are based on 231 00:21:21.340 --> 00:21:24.540 the doctrine of natural right. 232 00:21:24.540 --> 00:21:31.420 Before God or nature, all men are equal and endowed with an inalienable right to live. 233 00:21:31.420 --> 00:21:37.780 However, the reference to inborn equality is certainly out of place in dealing with 234 00:21:37.780 --> 00:21:41.480 the effects of inborn inequality. 235 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:48.440 It is a sad fact that physical disability prevents many people from playing an active role in 236 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:50.880 social cooperation. 237 00:21:50.880 --> 00:21:56.480 It is the operation of the laws of nature that makes these people outcasts. 238 00:21:56.480 --> 00:22:00.040 They are stepchildren of God or nature. 239 00:22:00.040 --> 00:22:05.960 We may fully endorse the religious and ethical precepts that declare it to be man's duty 240 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:10.840 to assist his unlucky brethren whom nature has doomed. 241 00:22:10.840 --> 00:22:16.440 But the recognition of this duty does not answer the question concerning what methods 242 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:20.200 should be resorted to for its performance. 243 00:22:20.200 --> 00:22:26.940 It does not enjoin the choice of methods which would endanger society and curtail the productivity 244 00:22:26.940 --> 00:22:29.320 of the human effort. 245 00:22:29.320 --> 00:22:35.680 Neither the able-bodied nor the incapacitated would derive any benefit from a drop in the 246 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:39.040 quantity of goods available. 247 00:22:39.040 --> 00:22:45.540 The problems involved are not of a praxeological character, and economics is not called upon 248 00:22:45.540 --> 00:22:49.380 to provide the best possible solution for them. 249 00:22:49.380 --> 00:22:53.020 They concern pathology and psychology. 250 00:22:53.020 --> 00:22:59.380 They refer to the biological fact that the fear of penury and of the degrading consequences 251 00:22:59.380 --> 00:23:05.860 of being supported by charity are important factors in the preservation of man's physiological 252 00:23:05.860 --> 00:23:07.780 equilibrium. 253 00:23:07.780 --> 00:23:14.660 They impel a man to keep fit, to avoid sickness and accidents, and to recover as soon as possible 254 00:23:14.660 --> 00:23:16.660 from injuries suffered. 255 00:23:16.660 --> 00:23:22.300 The experience of the social security system, especially that of the oldest scheme, the 256 00:23:22.300 --> 00:23:28.180 German, has clearly shown the undesirable effects resulting from the elimination of 257 00:23:28.180 --> 00:23:30.380 these incentives. 258 00:23:30.380 --> 00:23:36.700 No civilized community has callously allowed the incapacitated to perish. 259 00:23:36.700 --> 00:23:43.340 But the substitution of a legally enforceable claim to support or sustenance for charitable 260 00:23:43.340 --> 00:23:49.060 relief does not seem to agree with human nature as it is. 261 00:23:49.060 --> 00:23:55.780 Not metaphysical prepossessions, but considerations of practical expediency make it inadvisable 262 00:23:55.780 --> 00:24:00.660 to promulgate an actionable right to sustenance. 263 00:24:00.660 --> 00:24:07.100 It is, moreover, an illusion to believe that the enactment of such laws can free the indigent 264 00:24:07.100 --> 00:24:11.780 from the degrading features inherent in receiving alms. 265 00:24:11.780 --> 00:24:18.700 The more open-handed these laws are, the more punctilious must their application become. 266 00:24:18.700 --> 00:24:24.000 The discretion of bureaucrats is substituted for the discretion of people whom an inner 267 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:27.600 voice drives to acts of charity. 268 00:24:27.600 --> 00:24:33.760 Whether this change renders the lot of those incapacitated any easier is hard to say.