{"product_id":"2940013677838","title":"The Millionairess","description":"Though this play of The Millionairess does not pretend to be\u003cbr\u003eanything more than a comedy of humorous and curious contemporary\u003cbr\u003echaracters, such as Ben Jonson might write were he alive now, yet\u003cbr\u003eit raises a question that has troubled human life and moulded human\u003cbr\u003esociety since the creation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe law is equal before all of us; but we are not all equal before\u003cbr\u003ethe law.  Virtually there is one law for the rich and another for\u003cbr\u003ethe poor, one law for the cunning and another for the simple, one\u003cbr\u003elaw for the forceful and another for the feeble, one law for the\u003cbr\u003eignorant and another for the learned, one law for the brave and\u003cbr\u003eanother for the timid, and within family limits one law for the\u003cbr\u003eparent and no law at all for the child.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the humblest cabin that contains a family you may find a\u003cbr\u003emaîtresse femme who rules in the household by a sort of divine\u003cbr\u003eright.  She may rule amiably by being able to think more quickly\u003cbr\u003eand see further than the others, or she may be a tyrant ruling\u003cbr\u003eviolently by intensity of will and ruthless egotism.  She may be a\u003cbr\u003egrandmother and she may be a girl.  But the others find they are\u003cbr\u003eunable to resist her.  Often of course the domestic tyrant is a\u003cbr\u003eman; but the phenomenon is not so remarkable in his case, as he is\u003cbr\u003eby convention the master and lawgiver of the hearthstone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn every business street you will find a shopkeeper who is always\u003cbr\u003ein difficulties and ends his business adventures in the bankruptcy\u003cbr\u003ecourt.  Hard by you will find another shopkeeper, with no greater\u003cbr\u003eadvantages to start with, or possibly less, who makes larger and\u003cbr\u003elarger profits, and inspires more and more confidence in his\u003cbr\u003ebanker, until he ends as the millionaire head of a giant multiple\u003cbr\u003eshop.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow does the captain of a pirate ship obtain his position and\u003cbr\u003emaintain his authority over a crew of scoundrels who are all, like\u003cbr\u003ehimself, outside the law?  How does an obscure village priest, the\u003cbr\u003eson of humble fisherfolk, come to wear the triple crown and sit in\u003cbr\u003ethe papal chair?  How do common soldiers become Kings, Shahs, and\u003cbr\u003eDictators?  Why does a hereditary peer find that he is a nonentity\u003cbr\u003ein a grand house organized and ruled by his butler?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQuestions like these force themselves on us so continually and\u003cbr\u003eruthlessly that many turn in despair from Socialism and political\u003cbr\u003ereform on the ground that to abolish all the institutional\u003cbr\u003etyrannies would only deliver the country helplessly into the hands\u003cbr\u003eof the born bosses.  A king, a prelate, a squire, a capitalist, a\u003cbr\u003ejustice of the peace may be a good kind Christian soul, owing his\u003cbr\u003eposition, as most of us do, to being the son of his father; but a\u003cbr\u003eborn boss is one who rides roughshod over us by some mysterious\u003cbr\u003epower that separates him from our species and makes us fear him:\u003cbr\u003ethat is, hate him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat is to be done with that section of the possessors of specific\u003cbr\u003etalents whose talent is for moneymaking?  History and daily\u003cbr\u003eexperience teach us that if the world does not devise some plan of\u003cbr\u003eruling them, they will rule the world.  Now it is not desirable\u003cbr\u003ethat they should rule the world; for the secret of moneymaking is\u003cbr\u003eto care for nothing else and to work at nothing else; and as the\u003cbr\u003eworld's welfare depends on operations by which no individual can\u003cbr\u003emake money, whilst its ruin by war and drink and disease and drugs\u003cbr\u003eand debauchery is enormously profitable to moneymakers, the\u003cbr\u003esupremacy of the moneymaker is the destruction of the State.  A\u003cbr\u003esociety which depends on the incentive of private profit is doomed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd what about ambitious people who possess commanding business\u003cbr\u003eability or military genius or both?  They are irresistible unless\u003cbr\u003ethey are restrained by law; for ordinary individuals are helpless\u003cbr\u003ein their hands.  Are they to be the masters of society or its\u003cbr\u003eservants?","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47176133443824,"sku":"2940013677838","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013677838_p0.jpg?v=1763584411","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013677838","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}