They were permitted to have houses or portions of houses to themselves, and to live there on the share of the public produce allotted to the several members of each household.

It had been assumed as matter of course by the majority that when every one was forced to work there would be more than enough for all; that public spirit, and if necessary coercion, would prove as effectual stimulants to exertion and industry as interest and necessity had done under the system of private ownership.
Those who relied on the refutation of this theory forgot that with poor and suffering men who look to no future, and acknowledge no law but such as is created by their own capricious will and pleasure, envy is even a more powerful passion than greed.

The Many preferred that wealth and luxury should be destroyed, rather than that they should be the exclusive possession of the Few.

The first and most visible effect of Communism was the utter disappearance of all perishable luxuries, of all food, clothing, furniture, better than that enjoyed by the poorest.

Whatever could not be produced in quantities sufficient to give each an appreciable share was not produced at all.