Better and Better Off
The world would be better off
if people tried to become better.
And people would become better
if they stopped trying to become better off.
For when everybody tries to become
better off,
nobody is better off.
But when everybody tries to become better,
everybody is better off.
Everybody would be rich
if nobody tried to become richer.
And nobody would be poor
if everybody tried to be the poorest.
And everybody would be what he ought
to be
if everybody tried to be
what be wants the other fellow to be.
Christianity has nothing to do
with either modern capitalism
or modern Communism,
for Christianity has
a capitalism of its own
and a communism of its own.
Modern capitalism
is based on property without responsibility,
while Christian capitalism
is based on property with responsibility.
Modern Communism
is based on poverty through force
while Christian communism
is based on poverty through choice.
For a Christian,
voluntary poverty is the ideal
as exemplified by St. Francis of Assisi,
while private property
is not an absolute right, but a gift
which as such can not be wasted,
but must be administered
for the benefit of God’s chi1dren.
According to Johannes Jorgensen,
a Danish convert living in Assisi,
St. Francis desired
that men should give up
superfluous possessions.
St. Francis desired
that men should work with their hands.
St. Francis desired
that men should offer their services
as a gift.
St. Francis desired
that men should ask other people for help
when work failed them.
St. Francis desired
that men should live
as free as birds.
St. Francis desired
that men should go through life
giving thanks to God for His gifts.
Three Ways to Make a Living
Mirabeau says “There are three ways
to make a living:
Stealing, begging, and working.”
Stealing is against the law of God
and against the law of men.
Begging is against the law of men
but not against the law of God.
Working is neither against the law of God
nor against the law of men.
But they say
that there is no work to do.
There is plenty of work to do,
but no wages.
But people do not need to work for wages,
they can offer their services as a gift.
Capital and Labor
“Capita1,” says Karl Marx, “is accumulated
labor,
not for the benefit of the laborers,
but for the benefit of the accumulators.”
And capitalists succeed in accumulating
labor,
by treating labor, not as a gift,
but as a commodity,
buying it as any other commodity
at the lowest possible price.
And organized labor plays into the hands
of the capitalists, or accumulators of labor,
by treating its own labor
not as a gift, but as a commodity,
selling it as any other commodity
at the highest possible price.
And the class struggle is a struggle
between the buyers of labor
at the lowest possible price
and the sellers of labor
at the highest possible price.
But the buyers of labor
at the lowest possible price
and the sellers of labor
at the highest possible price
are nothing but commercializers of labor.
Selling Their Labor
When the workers
sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
they allow the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
to accumulate their labor.
And when the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
have accumulated so much
of the workers’ labor
that they do no longer
find it profitable
to buy the workers’ labor
then the workers
can no longer sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor.
And when the workers
can no longer
sell their labor
to the capitalists
or accumulators of labor
they can no longer buy
the products of their labor.
And that is what the workers get
for selling their labor.