As the whole people control affairs, no man works
for another, and no man pays another. Every one does his share of labor,
and receives his share of food, clothing, and shelter, which is neither
more nor less than another's. If you can imagine the justice and
impartiality of a well-ordered family, you can conceive of the social and
economic life of Altruria. We are, properly speaking, a family rather than
a nation like yours.
"Of course, we are somewhat favored by our insular, or continental,
position; but I do not know that we are more so than you are. Certainly,
however, we are self-sufficing in a degree unknown to most European
countries; and we have within our borders the materials of every comfort
and the resources of every need. We have no commerce with the egoistic
world, as we call that outside, and I believe that I am the first
Altrurian to visit foreign countries avowedly in my national character,
though we have always had emissaries living abroad incognito. I hope that
I may say without offence that they find it a sorrowful exile, and that
the reports of the egoistic world, with its wars, its bankruptcies, its
civic commotions, and its social unhappiness, do not make us discontented
with our own condition.
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