The Camel and the Needle's Eye

Extreme poverty a consequence of extreme wealth--Pity or contempt for the poor--Money ideal strong among the poor-- The different phases in making a fortune--The general tendency of society--Relations between rich and poor-- Dis-sympathy and class hatred--The social problem 11

Chapter II

Money as a supreme concern--Intensity of belief in money-- Definition of Contention--The impulses which act as the motive power of money-making--The limitation of human capacities--Money and happiness--Money as responsibility--The national wealth and welfare 27

Chapter III

Definition of the limit--Those whose means are above the limit--Income translated into terms of subsistence--The case of the rich man--His establishments--His servants-- His luxuries--Extravagance--Vanity--Sport--Racing-- Yachting--Condemnation of excess 43

Chapter IV

The rich man’s charities--His generosity--His hospitality-- His land--The Feudal System--His responsibilities--The agricultural problem 71

Chapter V

The rich man’s children--His sons’ education at school and university--His daughters--Love and marriage--Refinement of the aristocracy--Their alliance with the plutocracy-- Smart society--Its general characteristics 85

Chapter VI

The rich man as a business man--The conduct of a successful business--Money-making the incentive--Money no measure of merit or worth in men--Or in works of art--Financiers-- The power of money--Imperialism--Political power-- Experiments of millionaires--Gifts--Money administered by corporations or the State 101

Chapter VII

The deceptive process of the growth of riches--The relaxation of effort--The love of ease--The power of convention-- The disadvantages of abundance--Surfeit--Difficulties in a rich man’s life--Waste of talent and capacity--England as a nation deeply infected with the belief in money 119

Chapter VIII

The problem of riches--Necessity of a scientific investigation into the lives of the rich--Interdependence of riches and poverty--Analysis of expenditure on houses, servants, clothes, food, amusements--Impressions of a poor crowd and a rich crowd--Tragedies 139

Chapter IX

Religion and money--Attitude of clergy--Emphatic condemnation of riches by Christ--Notable texts and sayings--Want of conviction--Importance attached to dogmatic religion-- Necessity for stronger denunciation 163

Chapter X

Results of influence of money--No motive in lives of the rich--Money as our master--If money ideal could be discarded--Possibility of change of ideal for all classes 179

Preface

My original intention was to collect together a number of essays on some of the most important bearings of the question of the expenditure of riches. After corresponding with those whom I had invited to join me in this undertaking, I became aware that in spite of our substantial agreement on main principles it would be difficult to secure uniformity in the treatment of the theme, and impossible to carry on any sustained argument through the varied contributions of different people writing from different points of view. Accordingly I came to the conclusion that I must renounce the co-operation of men well qualified to speak, whose knowledge and experience would have given their opinions special weight, and work out my own argument unaided.

Had I approached the subject from the standpoint of a scientific economist, I should have hesitated to enter upon such a formidable task. The more special knowledge a man has, the more conscious does he become of the impossibility of dealing adequately with his subject. But my object has been to write as one knowing no more than others who take any interest in human affairs and watch the play of social forces, as one who is no spectator in the combat he describes, and who, being himself infected with the malady he is studying, is perhaps the better able to diagnose it. I do not speak as a preacher to his congregation, as a teacher to his pupils, as a moralist to his disciples, or even as a politician to his audience, but as one man submitting his opinion for what it is worth to another.