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
