equal and paid in money, will
be the method of remuneration for labor in the Socialist regime.[195]
When too many laborers rush into certain branches of industry, the
natural way to lessen their number and to increase the number of
laborers in other branches where there is need for them, will be to
reduce wages in the one and to increase them in the other. Socialism,
instead of being defined as an attempt to make men equal, might perhaps
be more justly and accurately defined as a social system based upon the
natural inequalities of mankind. Not human equality, but equality of
opportunity, and the prevention of the creation of artificial
inequalities by privilege, is the essence of Socialism.

What, it may be asked, will society do to prevent the hoarding of wealth
on the one hand, and the exploitation of the spendthrift by the
abstinent upon the other? Here, as throughout this discussion, we must
be careful to refrain from laying down dogmatic rules, giving
categorical replies to questions which the future will settle in its own
way. At best, we can only reason as to what possible answers are
compatible with the fundamental principles of Socialism. Thus we may
safely answer that in the Socialist regime society will not attempt to
dictate to the individual how he shall spend his income. If Jones
prefers _objets d'art_, and Smith prefers fast horses or a steam yacht,
each will be free to follow his inclinations so far as his resources
will permit. If, on the contrary, one should prefer to hoard his wealth,
he would be free to do so. The inheritance of such accumulated property,
other than personal objects, of course, might be denied, the state being
made the only possible inheritor of such accumulated property. Even in
the absence of such a regulation, the inheritance of hoarded wealth
would not be a serious matter and would speedily adjust itself. There
would be no opportunity for its _investment_, so that at most
individuals inheriting such property would be enabled to live idly, or
with extra luxury, until it was spent. The fact of inheriting property
would not give the individual power over the life and labor of others.
By either method, full play for individual liberty would be coupled with
full economic security for society. There would be no danger of the
development of a ruling class as a result of natural inequalities.

With such conditions as these, it is not difficult nor in any sense
romantic to suppose that