written history. During periods of civilization, and notably in
present-day civilization, exploitation has determined social
relationships. It has also become one of the pillars of every civilized
community.

Civilized peoples use up natural resources as a matter of course. The
more advanced technically have stripped their environments of
replaceable and irreplaceable resources. They have also perfected
techniques for using the productive power of their fellow creatures. One
way to do this is by owning the body. Another way is ownership of land,
capital and consumer goods which enable the owner to live without labor
on the products resulting from the labor of others.

Owners of property and wealth receive an income because they are owners.
They may be very young or very old, able-bodied or helpless. Their
livelihood comes to them not because of anything they do, but because of
the property titles which they own.

The owner of land may collect rent. The owner of capital may collect
interest. The owner of an enterprise may collect profits. Each lives by
owning.

Workers produce goods and services. They are paid an income proportioned
to their production.

Owners of land, capital and consumer goods are paid incomes proportioned
to their ownership.

Workers work for a living. Owners live by ownership, chiefly of land and
the implements of production.

Owners of property frequently are rich. Workers, by comparison, are
poor. The line separating owners from workers also separates riches from
poverty.

Income from services rendered, from work, is earned income. Income from
property ownership, by contrast, is unearned income.

The relation between earned and unearned income is not confined to one
generation. Under laws passed by the owners and their retainers the
owners of private property may give or bequeath this property to their
descendants. In the course of time a community is divided between
workers who are poor and owners who are rich. Since the rich need not
work in order to live, they and those associated with them may live on
the unearned income derived from property ownership. In a word, they may
become parasitic.

Parasitism may lead to social decay. Generation after generation, the
owners and their dependants may live in comfort or even in luxury while
those who work and their dependents may lack simple necessities. This is
the confrontation of riches and poverty which has played so large a role
in