Page:Two Lectures on the Checks to Population.pdf/78

72 In the present state of society, down to a certain point, the food is distributed in definite shares. Beyond that point, that is, amongst those whose necessities press against their means, it is divided proportionally to their numbers. That the owners of land should be able to command definite shares, is a necessary consequence of their ownership. Between them, as purchasers of food, there can be no competition. Among capitalists, and the rest of the middling ranks, the same result follows, only contingently, from the limitation of their competition. Were capital as uniformly distributed, and as easily obtained, as is the ability to labour, then, however great its efficacy in assisting labour might be, still the capitalists would be as badly off as are at present the labouring classes. Capital would be in a manner absorbed into labour, and the possession of it would be equivalent merely to an increased effectiveness of labour. The labourers would indeed be better clothed, better lodged, and all their artificial wants would be more liberally supplied. But leisure they would not have, nor would they obtain the means of subsistence upon easier terms than at present.

If the incomes of a certain number of families,