And then the thing happened, and he
went into the workhouse. The alternative to the workhouse is to go home
to Ireland and burden his friends for the rest of his life. Comment is
superfluous.
It must be understood that efficiency is not determined by the workers
themselves, but is determined by the demand for labour. If three men
seek one position, the most efficient man will get it. The other two, no
matter how capable they may be, will none the less be inefficients. If
Germany, Japan, and the United States should capture the entire world
market for iron, coal, and textiles, at once the English workers would be
thrown idle by hundreds of thousands. Some would emigrate, but the rest
would rush their labour into the remaining industries. A general shaking
up of the workers from top to bottom would result; and when equilibrium
had been restored, the number of the inefficients at the bottom of the
Abyss would have been increased by hundreds of thousands. On the other
hand, conditions remaining constant and all the workers doubling their
efficiency, there would still be as many inefficients, though each
inefficient were twice as capable as he had been and more capable than
many of the efficients had previously been.
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