Functional socialism

34 FUNCTIONAL SOCIALISM

concerned. What the employer does in his capacity as citizen or neighbour to relieve the distress caused by his action as employer is one of the paradoxes of modern civilization.

AMELIORATION WITHIN THE WAGE-SYSTEM

At this point we must carefully guard against reasoning in a vicious circle. It is true that the wage contract (and, in consequence, the wage srazus) is enforced by the economic power of the possessing classes. Therefore it would seem to follow that the only way out of wage servitude is by the progressive increase of economic power won by the wage-earner in the class struggle. This not only seems to be true, but is true. The armoury of the wage-earner in the class struggle is envisaged in trade union organization and political action. In this struggle all men and women of goodwill must surely enlist on the side of Labour. But it is equally true that the great majority of trade union and political workers are still largely dominated by an ideology that accepts the wage-system and seeks only its amelioration. We see this even in Soviet Russia, where “‘personalization” is now the favourite slogan, with no thought of wage abolition.

SNOBBERIES, OLD AND NEW

The reason why men of mettle throughout all history have tried to escape from status is found, on analysis, to be, not an objection to status per se, but rather to the universal misconception of the rationale