Key Arguments

• He affirms that an employer owes the worker enough to live while working: "The laborer needs a salary which will enable him to live while he works; for unless he consumes, he cannot produce. Whoever employs a man owes him maintenance and support, or wages enough to procure the same. That is the first thing to be done in all production."
• He then adds a second requirement: "It is necessary that the laborer should find in his production, in addition to his present support, a guarantee of his future support; otherwise the source of production would dry up, and his productive capacity would become exhausted: in other words, the labor accomplished must give birth perpetually to new labor⁠—such is the universal law of reproduction."
• He contrasts the proprietor’s situation—who finds both present and future means in his capital and land—with that of the worker: "In this way, the proprietor of a farm finds: 1. In his crops, means, not only of supporting himself and his family, but of maintaining and improving his capital, of feeding his livestock⁠—in a word, means of new labor and continual reproduction; 2. In his ownership of a productive agency, a permanent basis of cultivation and labor."
• He asks pointedly, "But he who lends his services⁠—what is his basis of cultivation?" and answers that it is only "The proprietor’s presumed need of him, and the unwarranted supposition that he wishes to employ him," exposing the worker’s structural insecurity.
• He likens this dependence to feudal subjection: "Just as the commoner once held his land by the munificence and condescension of the lord, so today the workingman holds his labor by the condescension and necessities of the master and proprietor," explicitly framing modern wage labor as a continuation of the 'servile' condition he elsewhere criticizes.
• By emphasizing the lack of a permanent productive base for workers, he strengthens his earlier claim that they must retain a property right in what they produce, so their labor can generate a lasting foundation for their own future work rather than only for the proprietor’s capital.

Source Quotes

Strike a balance, then, between the capitalist’s receipts and his payments. The laborer needs a salary which will enable him to live while he works; for unless he consumes, he cannot produce. Whoever employs a man owes him maintenance and support, or wages enough to procure the same. That is the first thing to be done in all production.

I admit, for the moment, that in this respect the capitalist has discharged his duty. It is necessary that the laborer should find in his production, in addition to his present support, a guarantee of his future support; otherwise the source of production would dry up, and his productive capacity would become exhausted: in other words, the labor accomplished must give birth perpetually to new labor⁠—such is the universal law of reproduction. In this way, the proprietor of a farm finds: 1.

It is necessary that the laborer should find in his production, in addition to his present support, a guarantee of his future support; otherwise the source of production would dry up, and his productive capacity would become exhausted: in other words, the labor accomplished must give birth perpetually to new labor⁠—such is the universal law of reproduction. In this way, the proprietor of a farm finds: 1. In his crops, means, not only of supporting himself and his family, but of maintaining and improving his capital, of feeding his livestock⁠—in a word, means of new labor and continual reproduction; 2. In his ownership of a productive agency, a permanent basis of cultivation and labor. But he who lends his services⁠—what is his basis of cultivation?

In his ownership of a productive agency, a permanent basis of cultivation and labor. But he who lends his services⁠—what is his basis of cultivation? The proprietor’s presumed need of him, and the unwarranted supposition that he wishes to employ him. Just as the commoner once held his land by the munificence and condescension of the lord, so today the workingman holds his labor by the condescension and necessities of the master and proprietor:

The proprietor’s presumed need of him, and the unwarranted supposition that he wishes to employ him. Just as the commoner once held his land by the munificence and condescension of the lord, so today the workingman holds his labor by the condescension and necessities of the master and proprietor:

Key Concepts

• The laborer needs a salary which will enable him to live while he works; for unless he consumes, he cannot produce. Whoever employs a man owes him maintenance and support, or wages enough to procure the same.
• It is necessary that the laborer should find in his production, in addition to his present support, a guarantee of his future support; otherwise the source of production would dry up, and his productive capacity would become exhausted: in other words, the labor accomplished must give birth perpetually to new labor⁠—such is the universal law of reproduction.
• In this way, the proprietor of a farm finds: 1. In his crops, means, not only of supporting himself and his family, but of maintaining and improving his capital, of feeding his livestock⁠—in a word, means of new labor and continual reproduction; 2. In his ownership of a productive agency, a permanent basis of cultivation and labor.
• But he who lends his services⁠—what is his basis of cultivation? The proprietor’s presumed need of him, and the unwarranted supposition that he wishes to employ him.
• Just as the commoner once held his land by the munificence and condescension of the lord, so today the workingman holds his labor by the condescension and necessities of the master and proprietor:

Context

Final portion of the provided excerpt from § 5, where Proudhon moves from the analysis of collective force and capitalist accounts to the broader question of reproduction and security, contrasting the proprietor’s durable base of production with the precarious condition of wage workers.