The sinking of a great mass [of people] below the level of a certain mode of subsistence, one that regulates itself automatically as necessary for a member of society — and with it, the loss of the feeling of right, of rectitude, and of the honour of subsisting by one’s own activity and labour — brings forth the production of the rabble, which, in turn, brings with it, at the same time, the greater ease of concentrating disproportionate wealth in a few hands.
The lowest mode of subsistence, that of the rabble, establishes itself of its own accord: this minimum, however, is very different among different peoples. In England, even the poorest man believes he has his right; this is something quite different from what the poor are content with in other countries. Poverty in itself does not make anyone into rabble: the latter is determined only by the disposition that becomes bound up with poverty, by the inner indignation against the rich, against society, the government, and so on. Bound up with this, further, is the fact that the human being who is thrown upon contingency becomes frivolous and averse to work, as for example the lazzaroni in Naples. Thus there arises in the rabble the evil that it does not have the honor of finding its subsistence through its own work, and yet claims the finding of its subsistence as its right. No human being can assert a right against nature, but in the condition of society, want at once takes on the form of a wrong done to this or that class. The important question of how poverty is to be remedied is one that especially agitates and torments modern societies.
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