Page:Karl Marx - The Poverty of Philosophy - (tr. Harry Quelch) - 1913.djvu/89

 Bray, who, quite in spite of ourselves, we find to have supplanted M. Proudhon, inasmuch as Mr. Bray, far from wishing to have the last word of humanity, only proposes such measures as he believes good for a period of transition between existing society and a system of communism.

An hour of the labor of Peter is exchanged for an hour of the labor of Paul. That is the fundamental axiom of Mr. Bray. Suppose Peter has performed twelve hours' work and Paul has only done six; then Peter will only be able to make with Paul an exchange of six against six. Peter will consequently have six hours' labor remaining. What will he do with these six hours of labor?

Either he will do nothing with them, that is to say he will have worked six hours for nothing; or maybe he will idle six hours in order to equalise matters; or, again, and this is his last resource, he will give to Paul these six hours, with which he can do nothing else, into the bargain.

Thus at the end of the account, what has Peter gained on Paul? Some hours of labor? No. He will have gained only some hours of leisure; he will be compelled to be an idler for six hours. And for this new right of idleness to be not only accepted but appreciated in the new society it is necessary that the latter should find its highest felicity in laziness and that labor should weigh upon it like a chain from which it must free itself at any cost. Yet still, if these hours of leisure which Peter has gained over Paul were only a real gain! But no. Paul, in beginning by working only six hours, arrives by steady and regular labor at the same result as Peter only obtains by commencing with an excess of labor. Each would desire to be Paul, there would be competition