In fact, you will find, Mr.West, as you come to know us, that there is far less interference of any sort with personal liberty nowadays than you were accustomed to.

We require, indeed, by law that every man shall serve the nation for a fixed period, instead of leaving him his choice, as you did, between working, stealing, or starving.
With the exception of this fundamental law, which is, indeed, merely a codification of the law of nature--the edict of Eden--by which it is made equal in its pressure on men, our system depends in no particular upon legislation, but is entirely voluntary, the logical outcome of the operation of human nature under rational conditions.

This question of inheritance illustrates just that point.

The fact that the nation is the sole capitalist and land-owner of course restricts the individual's possessions to his annual credit, and what personal and household belongings he may have procured with it.

His credit, like an annuity in your day, ceases on his death, with the allowance of a fixed sum for funeral expenses.