The Small Producer

“IT IS imperative in the cause of civilization, that we save the small producer and the small distributor. I call him “small” in contrast to those huge agglomerations of capital which have bred communism and half the other evils of our time. But I do not use this word “small” to make him out an unimportant person. He is all-important to human society and, under a scheme of properly distributed property, though his property would not be large it would be sufficient for his independence, his dignity and the security of his livelihood.

“At any rate the name does not matter. The point is that the individual farmer and craftsman – or rather he and his family, if he has one – should be fostered and preserved by society instead of being crushed under, as he has been under our recent insane social motives of mere greed and criminal competition.”

~H. Belloc: The Way Out, Chap. 26—The Small Producer.