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to the point in question in reasonable time — You will naturally observe, for instance,
that a saving of materials must of course include in it in some degree a
saving of workmanship; viz: of that which is bestowed in bringing the materials from
that state in which they are part of or supported by the original soil (old Dame
Tellus the universal mother) to that in which they are to be consumed.
Now then as to the Workmen; however it may be with an individual who may
be expected to regard himself in the 1st place; to the State, which ought to regard
every one of its members (or if you please, the Government which ought to regard every
one of it's subjects) with an equal eye, it ought ever, I think, to be a condition sine
qua non of it's acceptance of such a project to secure a subsistence to all such
persons as being thrown entirely out of employment, would otherwise be deprived of it:
for it can hardly be, that the accession of happiness, comfort &c (call it what you
will) to those whose benefit the saving accrues, can compensate the sum of the
distress experienced by a number of workmen in such a situation: & if the expence
of this be objected, it may be answer'd, that if the saving which is perpetual
will not answer this expence which is but temporary, to the Government
which is not limited as a private person is in its ability to make advances, it is
not worth attending to, nor the plan itself, whatever it be, worth adopting. You will
further observe that though the saving itself is perpetual, the accession of happiness which
it produces can hardly be reckoned other than temporary: for, in a little time,
that burthen, whatever it be, from which men were relieved by the saving, is
forgotten, & they relapse into the same state of mind in that respect as they were
in before. The persons to be benefitted by the saving in this case (besides the
person who is benefitted by the profit of the business) are the nation at large, that
is all the individuals indistinctly who compose it, who will be eased of so much
of their taxes as it amounts to. I need not tell you that it is impossible to form
any tolerable estimate of the quantity of happiness that the continual saving, supposing
the exact sum of it could be known, would produce in this way. We are
not however to conclude that this quantity, because difficult to adjust, is unreal or
inconsiderable. It will often happen that a person who at a given time can bear but his share
of the taxes tolerably well, when it comes upon any occasion to be ever so little
encreased, is reduced to great distress: and when this is the case with one, it must
be so with numbers; many more probably than would be thrown out of employment
by the saving. That great distress is often brought on numbers of people
by taxes is certain; and the cause of the that distress must in every case have a beginning
somewhere, that is in the lessening of their subsistence money by a certain sum.
Not to mention that the difficulty of finding a small sum of money will
often prevent the Government from setting on foot a scheme of public utility:
& so be a means of intercepting & preventing a quantity of happiness
which to some persons or other would have accrued by means of it.
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Identifier: | JB/537/264/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 537.
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1773-11-04 |
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537 |
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264 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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