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The Decay of Capitalist Civilization: Preface

The Decay of Capitalist Civilization
Preface
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table of contents
  1. Front Matter
    1. Title Page
    2. Copyright Information (HathiTrust)
    3. Preface
  2. Introduction
  3. Chapter I: The Poverty of the Poor
    1. The Results of the Industrial Revolution
    2. The Evils Not Intended
      1. But Presently Condoned
      2. The Modern Apologia
  4. Chapter II: Inequality of Income
    1. The Nation "Chooses Inequality"
    2. The Law of Inheritance
    3. The Inefficient Consumption of Wealth
    4. The Report of the Cosmic Inspector
    5. The Vitiation of Effective Demand
    6. The Wastefulness of Consumption
    7. The Effect of "Rationing"
    8. The Encouragement of Parasitic Idleness
    9. The Life of Unconscious Theft
    10. "Above the Law"
    11. The Lack of Good Manners
    12. The Corollary of Bad Manners
    13. The Effect of Loss of Function
    14. The Emergence of Really Good Manners
    15. The Dysgenic Influence
    16. "Money Selection"
  5. Chapter III: Inequality in Personal Freedom
    1. "Equal Before the Law"
    2. The Psychological Reaction
    3. When Authority Is Acceptable
    4. Dictation as to Environment
    5. Dictation of the Mental Environment
    6. Dictation in Government
    7. The Brain-Workers in Capitalist Service
    8. Why Liberalism Decayed
    9. A Liberal Apology for Capitalism
  6. Chapter IV: The Initial Success of the Capitalist System
    1. The Core of the Case
    2. The Nature of Profit-Making
    3. How Profit-Making Arose
    4. The Efficacy of the Profit-Making Motive
    5. To "Get Rich Quickly"
    6. The Capitalist Environment
    7. The Coming of the Capitalist
    8. The Ruthlessness of Capitalist Destruction
    9. The Achievements of the Capitalist
    10. The Increase in Production
    11. The Absence of Alternative
  7. Chapter V: The Eventual Failure of the Capitalist System
    1. The Adverse Developments of Capitalism
    2. The Damage and Destruction of the Instruments of Production by Capitalist Profit-Makers.
    3. The Ruin of Natural Resources
    4. The Worsening of Commodities
    5. The Supply of Pernicious Commodities and Services
    6. Gain Without Production
    7. The Hypertrophy of Selling Agencies
    8. How "Over-Production" Occurs
    9. How Capitalism Increases Cost
    10. The Growth of Monopoly and the Negation of Individual Freedom of Enterprise
    11. The Drawbacks of Industrial Concentration
    12. The Apotheosis of Industrial Concentration
    13. The "Forced Alternative"
    14. The Divorce of the Brain-Workers From the Instruments of Production
    15. The Growth of the Professional Class
    16. The Loss of the Whip of Starvation
    17. The Episode of a Penal Poor Law
    18. The Repudiation of the Penal Poor Law
    19. The Economic Case Against Capitalism
    20. The False Judgments of the "Court of Profit"
    21. The Fundamental Fallacy of Laissez Faire
    22. Comparison of Cost
    23. The Problem of Authority
  8. Chapter VI: The Capitalist System as a Cause of War
    1. War Between Nations
    2. The Trail of the Financier
    3. The Unashamedness of Imperial Capitalism
    4. How Wars Occur
    5. Britain's Share
    6. The Class War
    7. Universal Sabotage
    8. The Armageddon of Economic Creeds
    9. The Moral Issue

Preface

We may as well forestall the obvious criticism that this little book is not "constructive." It is not in- tended to supply a plan of reconstruction. For such a plan, in considerable detail, the reader is referred to the works advertised in the final pages; and particularly to A Constitution for the Socialist Commonwealth of Great Britain, and, on another plane, The Prevention of Destitution; or, in the form of a political program, the pamphlet of the British Labor Party, Labor and the New Social Order (33 Eccleston Square, London. Price Threepence).

We gratefully acknowledge the help of various friends, who will excuse the omission of their names. But we cannot refrain from expressing our deepest gratitude to our oldest friend and comrade, Mr. Bernard Shaw, who kindly undertook the revision of the proofs in the midst of a General Election when we were otherwise engaged.

41 Grosvenor Road,

Westminster, January 1923.

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