" EQUALITY OF INCOME " [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a Socialist and admirer of Mr. Shaw's latest guide to Socialism and Capitalism, I am, nevertheless, entirely in agreement with your correspondent, " A Would-Be Intelligent Woman." So much so that in certain aspects Mr. Shaw appears to me a veritable Rip Van Winkle. One would infer from reading his Guide that he had never heard of the School of New Economics, or read a single volume of the books in the Credit Research Library, or known of the existence of Orage, Major Douglas Kitson, Constantenesco, Professor Soddy, to mention at random a few names of those who preach the doctrine of Sufficiency. Yet this School, basing itself on science and accuracy of demonstration and observation, makes the doctrine of sufficiency appear reasonable and practical, nor, so far as I know, has any serious attempt been made to refute the arguments in favour of a sufficiency of income without in any way limiting individualism.
It does seem extraordinary that so intellectual a writer as Bernard Shaw, while demolishing the theocracy of Marx, should have disregarded Soddy's Wrecking of a Scientific Age, which has demolished the theocracy of Adam Smith.
If, as some contend, Socialism is inevitable, how much more readily would we accept the inevitable if we knew that its real objective was rather to secure sufficiency of income and regulate leisure than make quixotic attempts to establish and maintain equality of income.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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