374 THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT br. vi

incomes which do not apply equally to inequality ofinheritances.

For my own part, I believe that there is social andpsychological justification for significant inequalities ofincomes and wealth, but not for such large disparitiesas exist to-day. There are valuable human activitieswhich require the motive of money-making and theenvironment of private wealth-ownership for their fullfruition. Moreover, dangerous human proclivities canbe canalised into comparatively harmless channels bythe existence of opportunities for money-making andprivate wealth, which, if they cannot be satisfied inthis way, may find their outlet in cruelty, the recklesspursuit of personal power and authority, and otherforms of self-aggrandisement. It is better that a manshould tyrannise over his bank balance than over hisfellow-citizens; and whilst the former is sometimesdenounced as being but a means to the latter, some-times at least it is an alternative. But it is not necessaryfor the stimulation of these activities and the satis-faction of these proclivities that the game should beplayed for such high stakes as at present. Muchlower stakes will serve the purpose equally well, assoon as the players are accustomed to them. Thetask of transmuting human nature must not be con-fused with the task of managing it. Though in theideal commonwealth men may have been taught orinspired or bred to take no interest in the stakes, itmay still be wise and prudent statesmanship to allowthe game to be played, subject to rules and limitations,so long as the average man, or even a significant sectionof the community, is in fact strongly addicted to themoney-making passion.

ii

There is, however, a second, much more funda-mental inference from our argument which has a