murdered for it, it was as good as in those which had earned it
by industry. People nowadays interchange gifts and favors out of friendship, but
buying and selling is considered absolutely inconsistent with the mutual
benevolence and disinterestedness which should prevail between citizens and the
sense of community of interest which supports our social system. According to
our ideas, buying and selling is essentially anti-social in all its tendencies.
It is an education in self-seeking at the expense of others, and no society
whose citizens are trained in such a school can possibly rise above a very low
grade of civilization.«
    »What if you have to spend more than your card in any one year?« I asked.
    »The provision is so ample that we are more likely not to spend it all,«
replied Dr. Leete. »But if extraordinary expenses should exhaust it, we can
obtain a limited advance on the next year's credit, though this practice is not
encouraged, and a heavy discount is charged to check it. Of course if a man
showed himself a reckless spendthrift he would receive his allowance monthly or
weekly instead of yearly, or if necessary not be permitted to handle it all.«
    »If you don't spend your allowance, I suppose it accumulates?«
    »That is also permitted to a certain extent when a special outlay is
anticipated. But unless notice to the contrary is given, it is presumed that the
citizen who does not fully expend his credit did not have occasion to do so, and
the balance is turned into the general surplus.«
    »Such a system does not encourage saving habits on the part of citizens,« I
said.
    »It is not intended to,« was the reply. »The nation is rich, and does not
wish the people to deprive themselves of any good thing. In your day, men were
bound to lay up goods and money against coming failure of the means of support
and for their children. This necessity made parsimony a virtue. But now it would
have no such laudable object, and, having lost its utility, it has ceased to be
regarded as a virtue. No man any more has any care for the morrow, either for
himself or his children, for the nation guarantees the nurture, education, and
comfortable maintenance of every citizen from the cradle to the grave.«
    »That is a sweeping guarantee!« I said. »What certainty can there be that
the value of a man's labor will recompense the nation for its outlay on him? On
the whole, society may be