It is probable that for a long time to come the mass of mankind in civilized countries will find it both necessary and advantageous to labor for wages, and to accept the condition of hired laborers.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In antiquity, agriculture and industry depended completely on human labor; but now, with the development of natural forces that human labor cannot match, agriculture and industry have fallen completely into the hands of the capitalists. The greater the amount of capital, the more abundant the resources that can be utilized.
The constant effort towards population, which is found even in the most vicious societies, increases the number of people before the means of subsistence are increased.
A rise of wages from this cause will, indeed, be invariably accompanied by a rise in the price of commodities; but in such cases, it will be found that labour and all commodities have not varied in regard to each other, and that the variation has been confined to money.
Labor is the source of all wealth and all culture.
Only with the tools of production in their own hands could the workers ever hope to control their own lives and receive the fruits of their labor.
We cannot, any of us, do all the things of which mankind stand in need; we must have fellow-labourers.
The thing I don't understand is why so often one hears discussion of the fruits of human labor as if it's all the creation of some alien race.
In short, avoiding the scourge of unemployment may have less to do with chasing after growth and more to do with building an economy of care, craft and culture. And in doing so, restoring the value of decent work to its rightful place at the heart of society.
The production of wealth is the result of agreement between labor and capital, between employer and employed. Its distribution, therefore, will follow the law of its creation, or great injustice will be done.
At each increase of knowledge, as well as on the contrivance of every new tool, human labour becomes abridged.