The question is, therefore, whether, if this prospect is taken away from them, socialism could provide another which men of this special type would find equally stimulating.

Is human nature in general, and the nature of the monopolists in particular, sufficiently adaptable to admit of such a change as this?
The socialists answer that it is, and in making such an assertion they declare that they have all the facts of scientific sociology at the back of them.

The unscientific thing is, they say, to assume the contrary; and here, they proceed, we have the fundamental error which renders most of the conclusions of the ordinary economists valueless.

Economic science, in its generally accepted form, bases all its reasonings on the behaviour of the so-called "economic man"-- that is to say, a being from whom those who reason about him exclude all operative desires except that of economic gain.

But such a being, say the socialists, is a mere abstraction.