In your day, men were bound to lay up goods and money against coming failure of the means of support and for their children.

This necessity made parsimony a virtue.

But now it would have no such laudable object, and, having lost its utility, it has ceased to be regarded as a virtue.

No man any more has any care for the morrow, either for himself or his children, for the nation guarantees the nurture, education, and comfortable maintenance of every citizen from the cradle to the grave." "That is a sweeping guarantee!" I said.

"What certainty can there be that the value of a man's labor will recompense the nation for its outlay on him?
On the whole, society may be able to support all its members, but some must earn less than enough for their support, and others more; and that brings us back once more to the wages question, on which you have hitherto said nothing.