MOTIVES  OF  UNDER-CONSUMPTION

89

fact  that  a  man  cannot  eat  and  digest  a  good  dinner
unless  he  has  made  some  output  of  physical  energy  in
exercise,  penetrates  in  some  unseen  way  the  whole  region
of  consumption,  denying  satisfaction  that  is  not  compensated
by  some  corresponding  personal  effort.  This  “  natural  ”
law  finds  an  economical  expression  in  the  fact  that  an
attempt  to  be  a  very  large  consumer  and  a  very  small
producer  in  the  long  run  defeats  itself,  and,  when  it
cannot  by  force  of  social  circumstances  stimulate  production,
it  limits  consumption.
This,  interpreted  into  simple  language,  means  that  a  man
who  draws  a  large  income  without  working  for  it  cannot
and  does  not  spend  it.  This  will  seem  to  some  a  strange
assertion,  at  variance  with  the  lavish  luxury  imputed  to
and  practised  by  many  members  of  the  upper  unemployed
class,  but  it  is  literally  true.  Though  the  bulk  of  the  painful
abstinence  and  thrift  in  our  modern  communities  is  practised
by  the  working  and  poorer  trading  and  professional  classes,
the  bulk  of  the  “  saving  ”  is  effected  by  the  wealthy.
The  accumulated  savings  of  the  manual  workers  of  the
country,  even  if  we  place  to  their  account  the  whole  of
the  £200,000,000,  which  in  round  figures  represents  the
total  capital  of  savings  banks,  trade  unions,  benefit,  building,
co-operative  and  mutual  societies  of  every  kind,  does  not
amount  to  more  than  two  per  cent,  of  the  total  accumulated
wealth  of  the  country.  Although  we  have  no  means  of
exactly  apportioning  the  ownership  of  capital  value  among
the  various  classes  of  the  community,  we  know  that  a  large
proportion  represents  the  accumulation  of  the  surplus
income  of  the  wealthy  classes  after  their  wholesome  and
even  their  luxurious  wants  are  satisfied.  The  portentous
growth  of  the  capital  wielded  bv  a  few  successful  business