名篇名段03：Equality and greatness

Equality and Greatness

Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing;character,conduct,and capacity are everything.Instead of all the workers being leveled down to low wage standards and all the rich leveled up to fashionbale income standards,everybody under a system of equal incomes would find his or her own natural level.There would be great people and ordinary people and little peolpe,but the great would always be those who had done great things,and never the idiot whose mother had spoiled them and whose father had left a hunred thousand a year;and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters,and not poor persons who had never had a chance.That is why idiots are always in favour of inequality of income(their only chance of eminence),and the really great in favour of equality.

收入相当的人除了品性迥异以外没有社会差别。金钱不能说明什么；性格，行为，能力才代表一切。在收入平等制度下，每个人将会找到他或她正常的地位，而不是所有的工人被划到应拿低工资阶层，所有的富人被划到应得高收入的阶层。人有卓著伟人，平庸之辈和碌碌小人之别，然伟人总是那些有所建树之人，而非从小深受母亲溺爱，父亲每年留下一大笔钱之人；碌碌小人总是那些心胸狭窄，品德卑劣之人，而不是那些从未获取机会的穷人。愚蠢之众总是赞成收入不平等（他们职能凭借这种机会才能为人所知），而真正伟大之人则主张平等相待，原因就在于此。