The Machine Does Not Control

In The Same Way The Eminence Attaching To The Mere Possession Of Great Wealth Disappoints Us Nine Times Out Of Ten, Especially If The Wealth Has Been Accumulated Rapidly. For Great Wealth Is Accumulated Rapidly By Cunning Or Chance, Or A Mixture Of The Two. Cunning Has Nothing To Do With High Qualities; It Is Rather A Presumption Against Them; While Chance Has Nothing To Do With Them Either. Therefore It Is That Men Are Always Complaining After Meeting So-and-so, That He Seemed To Be Astonishingly Stupid, Though He Made A Million In Ten Years And Started As A Pauper.

Kings Live In Palaces, And Pigs In Sties, And Youth In Expectation. Youth Is Wise.

But If We Are To Retain Freedom, Then We Can Only Do So By Keeping The Determining Mass Of The Citizens The Possessors Of Property With Personal Control Over It, As Individuals Or As Families. For Property Is The Necessary Condition Of Economic Freedom In The Full Sense Of That Term. He That Has Not Property Is Under Economic Servitude To Him Who Has Property, Whether The Possessor Of It Be Another Individual Or The State.

Ownership Is Not A General Feature Of Our Society, Determining Its Character. On The Contrary, Dependence On A Precarious Wage At The Will Of Others Is The General Feature Of Our Society.

The Larger The Unit Of Capital Present, The Easier The Transaction Called Emission Of Credit. Centralized Lending Of This Kind (which Is Today Universal) Actively Promotes The Absorption Of The Small Man By The Great, The Reduction Of Small Property Owners To A Proletarian Condition.