I have been asked many times (in America, May 1932),what solution I brought for the social problems now confronting you-what did I have to offer that would solve the problems of unemployment, prohibition, crime- that would eliminate the strife between individuals and nations and pour a healing balm of peace upon a troubled world?

The answer has been so simple that it has been difficult to grasp. I will elaborate it now in order that it may be more easily understood.

The root of all our difficulties, individual and social, is self-interest.

It is this, for example, which causes corruptible politicians to accept bribes and betray the interests of those whom they have been elected to serve; which causes bootleggers to break, for their own profit, a law designed, whether wisely or not, to help the nation as a whole; which causes people to connive, for their own pleasure, in the breaking of that law, thus causing disrespect for law in general and increasing crime tremendously; which causes the exploitation of great masses of humanity by individuals or groups of individuals seeking personal gain; which impedes the progress of civilization by shelving inventions which would contribute to the welfare of humanity at large, simply because their use would mean the scrapping of present, inferior equipment; which, when people are starving, causes the wanton destruction of large quantities of food, simply in order to maintain market prices; which causes the hoarding of large sums of gold when the welfare of the world demands its circulation.

These are only a few examples of the way self-interest operates to the detriment of human welfare.

Eliminate self-interest and you will solve all your problems, individual and social.