The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction.
• Biographical and Critical.
• Author’s Preface to the First French Edition.
• Author’s Preface to the English Edition.
• Book I.: Evolution and Retrogression.
• Chapter I.: Social Retrogression.
• Chapter II.: Socialist Programmes.
• Chapter III.: Character of Political and Intellectual Progress.
• Chapter IV.: Character of Social Progress.
• Chapter V.: The Evolution of Property.
• Chapter VI.: Doctrinal Contradictions of the Socialists.
• Chapter VII.: Practical Self-contradiction of the Socialists.
• Book II.: Socialistic Sophisms.
• Chapter I.: Labour and Wealth.
• Chapter II.: On the Limits of Collectivist Society.
• Chapter III.: The Law of Supply and Demand.
• Chapter IV.: The %u201ciron Law%u201d of Wages.
• Chapter V.: Integral Wages.
• Chapter VI.: To Each According to His Needs.
• Chapter VII.: The Abolition of Wages.
• Chapter VIII.: Machinery.
• Chapter IX.: Excessive Production.
• Chapter X.: Economic Crises.
• Chapter XI.: Cheapness.
• Chapter XII.: The Game of the Gullible.
• Chapter XIII.: Socialistic Methods.
• Chapter XIV.: Facts Compared With Socialist Statements.
• Chapter XV.: Redistribution of Wealth.
• Book III.: Socialistic Legislation.
• Chapter I.: Putting Socialistic Sophisms In Force.
• Chapter II.: The Regulation of Child Labour.
• Chapter III.: Female Labour and the Law.
• Chapter IV.: Compulsory Idleness of Lying-in Women.
• Chapter V.: National Labour and Foreign Workmen.
• Chapter VI.: Trade Syndicates.
• Chapter VII.: Registry Offices.
• Chapter VIII.: Nature of %u201clabour Laws.%u201d
• Book IV.: Socialistic Morality and Respect For the Law.
• Chapter I.: Contempt For the Law.
• Chapter II.: Servile Labour and Free Labour.
• Book V.: Strikes and Social War.
• Chapter I.: Cost and Consequences of Strikes.
• Chapter II.: The Causes of Strikes.
• Chapter III.: During the Strike.
• Chapter IV.: Social War.
• Book VI.: Responsibilities.
• Chapter I.: Parliament and Strikes.
• Chapter II.: Subsidies to Strikers.
• Chapter III.: The Executive, the Judicature, and Strikes.
• Chapter IV.: Liberty and Anarchy.
• Chapter V.: The Socialism of Employers.
• Chapter VI.: Militarism, Protection, and Socialism.
• Conclusion.

CHAPTER V.

INTEGRAL WAGES.

The Employer a Parasite—Way to make a Fortune—Erroneous Hypotheses.

According to the Socialists of the school of Karl Marx, every employer is a thief, and they proceed to prove it by saying:

If, after having made a pair of shoes, I want to re-purchase them at the price which was paid to me, I cannot do so. A profit has been superadded to my wages. The employer is robbing me. He is a parasite that lives at my expense.

The Socialist calculates how much the employer deducts from the salary of each workman; and by this calculation he adduces the fact that it is sufficient to employ a lot of workmen in order to obtain large profits. If trade could be reduced to such simple principles as these, it would be enough to borrow capital and to hire as many workmen as possible, to ensure a fortune at once.

If Socialists would only take the trouble to examine the facts about which they talk, they would ask themselves why there are some manufacturers who ruin themselves whilst others prosper. But Socialists suppose that the price of raw materials never varies, and that there is no difficulty in buying them upon good terms. They also suppose that there is a continuous, regular, and easy demand for products at uniform prices.

In fact, they ignore the elements of trade—the interest of the capital engaged, as well as deterioration of plant; and as they do not see the employer actively engaged at his trade, they conclude that he is no better than a sluggard, for the labour of direction, without which neither work nor manufacture could exist, counts as nothing in their eyes.