Part 23 (1/2)
Free compet.i.tion, therefore, has only the following meaning: To the State all rank as its equal children, and every one can scud and run to _earn the State's goods and largess_. Therefore all do chase after havings, holdings, possessions (be it of money or offices, t.i.tles of honor, etc.), after the _things_.
In the mind of the commonalty every one is possessor or ”owner.” Now, whence comes it that the most have in fact next to nothing? From this, that the most are already joyful over being possessors at all, even though it be of some rags, as children are joyful in their first trousers or even the first penny that is presented to them. More precisely, however, the matter is to be taken as follows. Liberalism came forward at once with the declaration that it belonged to man's essence not to be property, but proprietor. As the consideration here was about ”man,” not about the individual, the how-much (which formed exactly the point of the individual's special interest) was left to him.
Hence the individual's egoism retained room for the freest play in this how-much, and carried on an indefatigable compet.i.tion.
However, the lucky egoism had to become a snag in the way of the less fortunate, and the latter, still keeping its feet planted on the principle of humanity, put forward the question as to the how-much of possession, and answered it to the effect that ”man must have as much as he requires.”
Will it be possible for _my_ egoism to let itself be satisfied with that? What ”man” requires furnishes by no means a scale for measuring me and my needs; for I may have use for less or more. I must rather have so much as I am competent to appropriate.
Compet.i.tion suffers from the unfavorable circ.u.mstance that the _means_ for competing are not at every one's command, because they are not taken from personality, but from accident. Most are _without means_, and for this reason _without goods_.
Hence the Socialists demand the _means_ for all, and aim at a society that shall offer means. Your money value, say they, we no longer recognize as your ”competence”; you must show another competence,--to wit, your _working force_. In the possession of a property, or as ”possessor,” man does certainly show himself as man; it was for this reason that we let the possessor, whom we called ”proprietor,” keep his standing so long. Yet you possess the things only so long as you are not ”put out of this property.”
The possessor is competent, but only so far as the others are incompetent. Since your ware forms your competence only so long as you are competent to defend it (_i. e._, as _we_ are not competent to do anything with it), look about you for another competence; for we now, by our might, surpa.s.s your alleged competence.
It was an extraordinarily large gain made, when the point of being regarded as possessors was put through. Therein bondservice was abolished, and every one who till then had been bound to the lord's service, and more or less had been his property, now became a ”lord.”
But henceforth your having, and what you have, are no longer adequate and no longer recognized; _per contra_, your working and your work rise in value. We now respect your _subduing_ things, as we formerly did your possessing them. Your work is your competence! You are lord or possessor only of what comes by _work_, not by _inheritance_. But as at the time everything has come by inheritance, and every copper that you possess bears not a labor-stamp but an inheritance stamp, everything must be melted over.
But is my work then really, as the Communists suppose, my sole competence? or does not this consist rather in everything that I am competent for? And does not the workers society itself have to concede this, _e. g._ in supporting also the sick, children, old men,--in short, those who are incapable of work? These are still competent for a good deal, _e. g._ to preserve their life instead of taking it. If they are competent to cause you to desire their continued existence, they have a power over you. To him who exercised utterly no power over you, you would vouchsafe nothing; he might perish.
Therefore, what you are _competent_ for is your _competence_! If you are competent to furnish pleasure to thousands, then thousands will pay you an honorarium for it; for it would stand in your power to forbear doing it, hence they must purchase your deed. If you are not competent to _captivate_ any one, you may simply starve.
Now am I, who am competent for much, perchance to have no advantage over the less competent?
We are all in the midst of abundance; now shall I not help myself as well as I can, but only wait and see how much is left me in an equal division?
Against compet.i.tion there rises up the principle of ragam.u.f.fin society,--_part.i.tion_.
To be looked upon as a mere _part_, part of society, the individual cannot bear--because he is _more_; his uniqueness puts from it this limited conception.
Hence he does not await his competence from the I sharing of others, and even in the workers' society there arises the misgiving that in an equal part.i.tion the strong will be exploited by the weak; he awaits his competence rather from himself, and says now, What I am competent to have, that is my competence. What competence does not the child possess in its smiling, its playing, its screaming! in short, in its mere existence! Are you capable of resisting its desire? or do you not hold out to it, as mother, your breast; as father, as much of your possessions as it needs? It compels you, therefore it possesses what you call yours.
If your person is of consequence to me, you pay me with your very existence; if I am concerned only with one of your qualities, then your compliance, perhaps, or your aid, has a value (a money value) for me, and I _purchase_ it.
If you do not know how to give yourself any other than a money value in my estimation, there may arise the case of which history tells us, that Germans, sons of the fatherland, were sold to America. Should those who let themselves be traded in be worth more to the seller? He preferred the cash to this living ware that did not understand how to make itself precious to him. That he discovered nothing more valuable in it was a.s.suredly a defect of his competence; but it takes a rogue to give more than he has. How should he show respect when he did not have it, nay, hardly could have it for such a pack!
You behave egoistically when you respect each other neither as possessors nor as ragam.u.f.fins or workers, but as a part of your competence, as ”_useful bodies_.” Then you will neither give anything to the possessor (”proprietor”) for his possessions, nor to him who works, but only to him whom _you require_. The North Americans ask themselves, Do we require a king? and answer, Not a farthing are he and his work worth to us.
If it is said that compet.i.tion throws every thing open to all, the expression is not accurate, and it is better put thus: compet.i.tion makes everything purchasable. In _abandoning_[186] it to them, compet.i.tion leaves it to their appraisal[187] or their estimation, and demands a price[188] for it.
But the would-be buyers mostly lack the means to make themselves buyers: they have no money. For money, then, the purchasable things are indeed to be had (”For money everything is to be had!”), but it is exactly money that is lacking. Where is one to get money, this current or circulating property? Know then, you have as much money[189] as you have--might; for you count[190] for as much as you make yourself count for.
One pays not with money, of which there may come a lack, but with his competence, by which alone we are ”competent”;[191] for one is proprietor only so far as the arm of our power reaches.
Weitling has thought out a new means of payment,--work. But the true means of payment remains, as always, _competence_. With what you have ”within your competence” you pay. Therefore think on the enlargement of your competence.
This being admitted, they are nevertheless right on hand again with the motto, ”To each according to his competence!” Who is to _give_ to me according to my competence? Society? Then I should have to put up with its estimation. Rather, I shall _take_ according to my competence.
”All belongs to all!” This proposition springs from the same unsubstantial theory. To each belongs only what he is competent for. If I say, The world belongs to me, properly that too is empty talk, which has a meaning only in so far as I respect no alien property. But to me belongs only as much as I am competent for, or have within my competence.
One is not worthy to have what one, through weakness, lets be taken from him; one is not worthy of it because one is not capable of it.
They raise a mighty uproar over the ”wrong of a thousand years” which is being committed by the rich against the poor. As if the rich were to blame for poverty, and the poor were not in like manner responsible for riches! Is there another difference between the two than that of competence and incompetence, of the competent and incompetent? Wherein, pray, does the crime of the rich consist? ”In their hardheartedness.”