raising of wages is futile, for employers cannot long pay out in wages
more than the laborer adds to the product. Some employers might do so
for a long time, and all employers might do so for a short time, but
if the practice were nation-wide and long-continued, it would result
in economic ruin. To put a premium upon propagation by guaranteeing
every man a job, and to pay him, not according to productivity, but
according to need, would be equivalent to building up a gigantic
charitable institution. Charity is a necessary and laudable function,
but the proper care of the dependent classes is possible only when the
majority of the people are not only self-supporting, but actually
produce a surplus out of which the unfortunate can be cared for. If
applicants for charity too largely outnumber those producing a
surplus, national bankruptcy results.

In the third place, an increase in wages might not benefit even those
receiving higher wages unless they were able and willing to spend
their income wisely and economically.

170. THE REDISTRIBUTION OF UNEARNED WEALTH.--The first step in our
program is to apply the principle of justice to the problem of
unearned wealth. The student should be careful at this point to
distinguish between wealth which has been earned, however great, and
wealth which has been acquired by unjust methods. American democracy
will tolerate no interference with wealth which has been earned; on
the other hand, it demands that unearned riches be redistributed in
the form of services performed by the government for the people as a
whole.

There are three chief methods of redistributing unearned wealth. The
first is by means of increased taxes on land. As was pointed out in