George Bernard Shaw
Of late years1 the public have been trying to tackle me in every way they possibly can and failing to make anything of it2 they have turned to treating me as a great man. This is a dreadful fate to overtake anybody. There has been a distinct attempt to do it again now, and for that reason I absolutely decline to say anything about the celebration of my seventieth birthday. But when the Labor Party, my old friends the Labor Party, invited me here I knew that I should be all right. We have discovered the secret that there are no great men, and we have discovered the secret that there are no great nations or great states.
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According to the capitalist, there will be a guarantee to the world that every man in the country would get a job. They didn''t contend it would be a well-paid job, because if it was well paid a man would save up enough one week to stop working the next week, and they were determined to keep a man working the whole time on a bare subsistence wage3 -and, one the other hand, divide an accumulation of capital.
They said capitalism not only secured this for the working man, but, by insuring fabulous wealth in the hands of a small class of people, they would save money whether they liked it or not, and would have to invest it. That is capitalism, and this Government is always interfering with capitalism. Instead of giving a man a job or letting him starve they are giving him doles-after making sure he has paid for them first. They are giving capitalists subsidies and making all sorts of regulations that are breaking up their own system. All the time they are doing it, and we are telling them it is breaking up4, they don''t understand.
We say in criticism of capitalism: Your system has never kept its promises for one single day since it was promulgated. Our production is ridiculous. We are producing eighty horse-power motor cars when many more houses should be built. We are producing most extravagant luxuries while children starve. You have stood production on its head5. Instead of beginning with the things the nation needs most, you are beginning at just the opposite end. …
We are opposed to that theory. Socialism, which is perfectly clear and unmistakable, says the thing you have got to take care of is your distribution. We have to begin with that, and private property, if it stands in the way of 6 good distribution, has got to go.
A man who holds public property must hold it on the public condition on which7, for instance, I carry my walking stick, I am not allowed to do what I like with it. I must not knock you on the head with it. We say that if distribution goes wrong, everything else goes wrong-religion, morals, government. And we say, therefore (this is the whole meaning of our socialism), we must begin with distribution and take all the necessary steps.
I think we are keeping it in our minds because our business is to take care of the distribution of wealth in the world: and I tell you, as I have told you before, that I don''t think there are two men, or perhaps one man, in our 47,000,000 who approves of the existing distribution of wealth. I will go even further and say that you will not find a single person in the world of the civilized world who agrees with the existing system of the distribution of wealth. It has been reduced to a blank absurdity …
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I think the day will come when we will be able to make the distinction between us and the capitalists. We must get certain leading ideas before the people8. We should announce that we are not going in for what was the old-fashioned idea of redistribution, but the redistribution of income. Let it always be a question of income.
I have been very happy here tonight. I entirely understand the distinction made by our chairman tonight when he said you hold me in social esteem9 and a certain amount of personal affection. I am not a sentimental man, but I am not insensible to all that, I know the value of all that, and it gives me, now that I have come to the age of seventy (it will not occur again and I am saying it for the last time), great feeling of pleasure that I can say what a good many people can''t say.
I know now that when I was a young man and took the turning that led me into the Labor Patty, I took the right turning in every sense.
在七十寿辰宴会上的讲话
乔治•伯纳德•萧。
近年来公众舆论一直千方百计想把我整垮。此计不成，又反过来把我捧成一个伟人。谁碰上了这种事情都是极为倒霉的。现在显然又有人企图在干同样的事了。为了这个缘故，对于庆祝我七十岁生日的活动，我完全拒绝发表任何意见。但是，当我的老朋友工党请我到这里来时，我知道不会出问题。因为我们发现了一个秘密，那就是世界上没有什么伟人。我们还发现另一个秘密，那就是，世界上没有什么伟大的民族，也没有什么伟大的国家。
……
资本主义者说，他们将向全世界保证，在这国家里，每人都能得到一份职业。他们并不主张那是一份收入很好的职业，因为假如收入很好，这个人只要做一星期的工，就能结余足够的钱，下星期不用工作了。因此他们要使每个人全时工作才能挣得仅能维持生计的工薪，另外，他们还要分得一份作为资本的积累。
他们说，资本主义不仅为工人提供了上述的保证，而且由于确保巨大的财富集中到一个人数很少的阶层的人手里，那么，不论这些人自己愿意与否，都必须将钱储蓄起来，用于投资。这就是资本主义，而我们政府的政策却常常和资本主义相抵触。政府既不为人提供工作，有不让他们饿死，而是给他们一点救济--当然，首先得肯定受施者已经为这点救济付足了钱。政府给资本主义者津贴，又订出了各种各样规定，破坏自己的制度。政府一直在做这样的事。我们告诉他们这是破坏，他们却不懂。
我们批评资本主义时说道：他们的制度自公布以来，就从未有哪一天实践过你们的诺言。我们的生产是荒唐的，我们本需要盖许多房屋，却去生产八十匹马力的汽车。孩子们在挨饿，我们却生产各种最豪华的奢侈品。你们把生产本末倒置了，不首先生产国民最需要的东西，却恰恰相反。……
我们反对这种资本主义理论，社会主义理论是明白无误的，它指出需要注意的是分配制度。我们必须从这个问题入手。如果私有财产妨碍分配制度的实行，那么就必须废除私有财产。
掌握公共财产的人必须按公众的条件来掌握公共财产，就象我拿手杖一样，我不能愿意用它干什么就干什么，我不能用它来敲你的脑袋。我们说，如果分配制度出了差错，那么，宗教、道德、政府等，一切都会跟着出问题。因此，我们说，必须从分配着手，并采取一切必要的步骤，这就是我们的社会主义理论的全部意义。
我以为，我们应当记住上述的一点，因为我们的任务是要处理好世界财富的分配问题。我告诉过你们，现在还要告诉你们，我认为在我们四千七百万人口中，没有两个人，也许连一个人也没有，会赞同现存的财富分配制度。我甚至要说，你们在整个文明世界中也找不出一个赞同现存财富分配制度的人来。这分配制度已成为毫无意义、荒谬绝伦的东西了。…… ……
我认为我们能够将自己和资本主义者区别开的一天终会到来。我们必须将一些指导思想公之于众。我们必须宣称我们追求的不是旧概念中的再分配，而是收入的再分配。我们指的始终是收入问题。
今天晚上我很高兴，我们的主席说，你们对我的社会地位有很高的评价，也对我有很深的个人感情，我感到非常光荣。我不是一个多愁善感的人，但也不能对此无动于衷。我知道这一切的价值。由于这一切，我十分高兴能够在这里说出了一些许多人不能说的话。我已经七十岁了，一个人一生只能有一次七十岁，我说这话也就是这一次了。
现在我确信，在我年轻时，思想转变，加入工党，这转变从一切方面都可以说，我的道路走对了。
