| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
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| Page | 1350 |
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| Chapter | -- |
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| Text |
suppose that the discovery or invention of such an aid to human industry would result in increased happiness and comfort for every one; but as you all know, the reverse is the case; and the reason of that extraordinary result, is the reason of all the poverty and unhappiness that we see around us and endure today - it is simply because - the machinery became the property of a comparatively few individuals and private companies, who use it not for the benefit of the community but to create profits for themselves. `As this labour-saving machinery became more extensively used, the prosperous class of skilled workers gradually disappeared. Some of the wealthier of them became distributers instead of producers of wealth; that is to say, they became shopkeepers, retailing the commodities that were produced for the most part by machinery. But the majority of them in course of time degenerated into a class of mere wage earners, having no property in the machines they used, and no property in the things they made. |
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