Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887
peared, that I had been all over the city alone that morning, and it was apparent that t
eresting one," said Mrs. Leete, as we sat down to table
ing was not to find any stores on Washington Street, or any banks on State. What have you done w
We have simply dispensed with them. Their
s when you want to b
ibution of goods is effected in another way. As to the b
me. I don't blame him, for the temptation my innocence offers must be extraordinary. But,
ing, I am sure," she replie
ised, if I remember rightly, by Mrs. Leete, and it was not till after breakfast, when the doctor had invi
t's reflection will show that trade existed and money was needed in your day simply because the bu
see how that fol
with what they desired. These exchanges constituted trade, and money was essential as their medium. But as soon as the nation became the sole producer of all sorts of commodities, there was no need of exchanges between individuals that they
istribution ma
nning of each year, and a credit card issued him with which he procures at the public storehouses, found in every community, whatever he desires whenever he desires it. This arrangem
substance. The term, as we use it, answers to no real thing, but merely serves as an algebraical symbol for comparing the values of products with one another. For this purpose they are al
ighbor, could you transfer part of your cr
nough, had there been no other, for abolishing money, that its possession was no indication of rightful title to it. In the hands of the man who had stolen it or murdered for it, it was as good as in those which had earned it by industry. People nowadays interchange gifts and favors out of friendship, but buying and selling is considered absolutely inconsistent with the mutual benevolence and d
nd more than your card i
n a limited advance on the next year's credit, though this practice is not encouraged, and a heavy discount is charged to check it. Of course if a man sho
your allowance, I su
notice to the contrary is given, it is presumed that the citizen who does not fully expend hi
ourage saving habits on the
of the means of support and for their children. This necessity made parsimony a virtue. But now it would have no such laudable object, and, having lost its utility, it has ceased to be regarded as a virtue.
f you remember, that our talk ended last evening; and I say again, as I did then, that here I should suppose a national industrial system like yours would find its main difficulty. How, I ask once more, can you adjust satisfactorily the comparative wages or remuneration of the multitude of avocations, so unlike and so incommensurable, which are necessary for the service of society? In our day the market rate
r have devised a better plan, for yours was simply the application to the mutual relations of men of the devil's maxim, 'Your necessity is my opportunity.' The reward of any service depended not upon its diffi
itute you can have devised for it. The government being the only possible employer, there is of course no labor market or market rate. Wages of all sorts must be arbitrarily
anteed employment to all, while permitting the choice of avocations. Don't you see that, however unsatisfactory the first adjustment might be, the mistakes would soon correct themselves? The favored trades would have too
regulate wages?"
just what you mean by that question; and yet the present order is so utterly different at this point that I am a little at loss how to answer you best. You ask
nt storehouse answers to his wages with us. How is the amount of the credit given respectively to the workers in diff
s his humanity. The basis of his c
ted, incredulously. "Do you possibly
assu
y considered the historical accounts of former epochs in which a very different system prevailed, canno
at we have no money to pay wages in, but, as I said, w
nth century as I was, came uppermost in my mind, upon this to me astounding arrangement. "Some men do twice the
of injustice," replied Dr. Leete, "by requiring
ld like to know, when no two
ire of each that he shall make the same effort; that is, we
swered, "the amount of the product resulting i
y to determine a moral question by a material standard. The amount of the effort alone is pertinent to the question of desert. All men who do their best, do the same. A man's endowments, however godlike, merely fix the measure of his duty. The man of great endowments who does not
it seems hard that the man who produces twice as much as anothe
fort, instead of being rewarded for doing so, ought to be punished if he does not do so. In the nineteenth century, when a horse pulled a heavier load than a goat, I suppose you rewarded him. Now, we should have w
verally required of them, was that the animals, not being reasoning beings, naturally did the best they could, whereas men could only be induced to do so by rewarding th
since your day. It is still so constituted that special incentives in the form of prizes, and advant
the same? High characters may be moved by devotion to the common welfare under such a system, but does not the average man tend to rest back on h
a question of dying for the nation, and never was there an age of the world when those motives did not call out what is best and noblest in men. And not only this, but when you come to analyze the love of money which was the general impulse to effort in your day, you find that the dread of want and desire of luxury was but one of several motives which the pursuit of money represented; the others, and with many the more influential, being desire of power, of social position, and reputation for ability and success. So you see that though we have abolished poverty and the fear of it, and inordinate luxury with the hope of it,
spur the workers to do their best must be a very essential part of our scheme. With us, diligence in the national service is the sole and certain way to public repute, social distinction, and official power. The value of a man's services to society fixes his rank in it. Compared with the effect of our social ar
" I said, "to learn something of w
ry elaborate, for it underlies the entire organization of our ind
erial platform where we sat of Edith Leete. She was dressed for the street, an
West would not be interested in visiting the store with you? I have been telling him somethin
"is an indefatigable shopper, and can te
and Edith being good enough to say that she should b