If they are, said the critics, let this wonderful fact be demonstrated.

If they are not, then it must stand to reason that the community will gain, and cannot possibly suffer, by gradually taking the incomes of these persons away from them, and rendering it impossible that incomes of a similar kind shall in the future be ever enjoyed by anybody.
The general nature of the error involved in this class of argument can be shown by a very simple illustration.

In many countries the government year by year makes a large sum by state lotteries.

This may be a vicious procedure, but let us assume for the moment that it is legitimate, and that everybody is interested in its perpetuation.

The largest of the prizes drawn in such lotteries is considerable--often amounting to more than twenty thousand pounds.