Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/881

 NO TES AND ABSTRA CTS 86 1

number of the rich is continually growing less ; on the other hand, it can everywhere be observed that this class is increasing in number.

For " the continually decreasing number of capital magnates " people, this means nothing: statistics are turned and twisted at will. The nearer we come to the break- ing up of the capitalistic system of economy, the more the "expropriators" swarm about. The business of expropriation will always grow less.

If now the income statistics has already done enough mischief in preventing gen- eral theories of economic development, it is doomed in the eyes of all social moralists. The development of profit-sharing has been pointed to quite as frequently in the praise as in the disparagement of capitalism, and for the last ten years a book has appeared biannually in opposition to the capitalistic system of economy, on the ground of the inequality of the division of property ; while this has produced the contradic- tory statement that the present economic system is the best of all systems, for :he support of which proposition the elevation of the lower classes is pointed out.

If it is now, in my opinion, inadmissible and unworthy of science to participate in such pot-house politics as the question whether the world is growing better or worse, then it is quite as dangerous to employ income statistics as weapons in the struggle of opinions.

First : When we want to answer the question whether the influence of profit- sharing upon the economic system has been favorable or unfavorable, we must reply that during the period whose beginning and end we have in mind a change has taken place in the condition of the masses. What, then, do we demand of an economic system that it support an increased population just as comfortably as it formerly did a smaller one, or that it support with a similar livelihood the population of the begin- ning of the period ? For the nineteenth century this question is, as is apparent, of special significance a century in which the population of Germany has doubled. I mean that when an economic system brings it about that twice the population of a country is supported, and that more comfortably, with the means of happiness, when it supports thirty million more people without apparently lowering the level of exist- ence, then it is doing a service which is without precedent in history. For me, this fact borders on the marvelous, and when I reflect on the development of the empire at leisure, I understand the bulwark and co-worker, when the capitalistic order of affairs is looked upon as established by God. That a hundred thousand people do not die of hunger in Germany nowadays is worthy of contemplation.

I can imagine that without much trouble one could make a register of the sins of capital, large enough to develop hate and opposition in the hearts of many against this system of economy. It has brought to us " the masses ; " it has robbed our lives of the inner rest ; it has estranged us to nature ; it has deprived us of the joy of our fathers in that it solved the world mathematically, and awoke in us an overvaluation of the things of this life ; it has brought the great mass of the people into a slavish relation of dependence upon a small number of enterpreneurs. But in return it has rendered a service of a wonderful nature : it has made it possible to support a con- tinually increasing population on the best in the market ; it has solved the problem of provisions in quite a masterly way, and better than any economic conception preced- ing it. If we take the standpoint of pure quantity and pass judgment from it, then capitalism is surrounded with a halo of glory as it writes in glowing words : thirty million more people.

Second : Another thought arises with every attempt to determine the value of an economic system from the figures of income statistics. The numbers, because they determine pure quantity, do not indicate the important elements. For we dare not forget that back of the commensurable numbers stand the incommensurable qualities of subjective satisfaction of needs. We must guard against the error that we can meas- ure the significance of a definite income in different periods by the price of any par- ticular articles of consumption. The periods stand in absolute unrelatedness, for the distinguishing elements are the imponderable and immeasurable circumstances in the application and use of the incomes. The bare numbers are meaningless. We must get behind them. We must get at the nature and worth of an economic culture. WERNER SOMBART, "Beruf und Besitz," in Arckiv fur soziale Gesetzgebuns und Sta- tistik, Vol. XVIII, 1903.

A. D. S.