Functional socialism

STATUS 35

of status, which, even now, is built on a wrong foundation. It is evident that what men do, what the community calls upon them to do, constitutes true status. ‘To that there can be no objection; on the contrary, it is essential to a well-ordered society. Doctor, scientist, mason, scavenger, tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor—all must play their part in the social orchestra. All these occupations are equally honourable and, economic conditions apart, should be of equal status. William Morris saw that when in News from Nowhere he gave his dustman the finest raiment and great social consideration. Ruskin expressed the same idea differently: whatever our job, we must do it at our peril and without regard to payment. This is poles apart from the professional and financial snobbery of modern life. We discover, in fact, that money determines status; that we are governed by money. A century or more ago, next to royalty, the landowner, even if impoverished, had the highest status; to-day he is supplanted by the banker and profiteer. Not forgetting the priest, the lawyer, the teacher, and the officer class, we find that all the social grades are determined by financial standing and not by functional usefulness. One status, the wageearner’s, remains unchanged. He possesses nothing but his labour. Nevertheless he remains the most valuable factor in our national life.

THE NEW BASIS: FUNCTION

From all this it would seem that staus is not in itself a problem, but an expression of the conditions