Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing: character, conduct, and capacity are everything. Instead of all the workers being leveled down to low wage standards, and all the rich leveled up to fashionable income standards everybody under a system of equal incomes would find her and his own natural level. There would be great people and ordinary people and little people, but the great would always be those who had done great things, and never the idiots whose mothers had spoiled them and whose fathers had left a hundred thousand a year; and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters, and not poor persons who had never had a chance. That is why idiots are always in favour of inequality of income (their only chance of eminence), and the really great in favour of equality.
Excerpt From The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism
By George Bernard Shaw
［参考译文］
平等与伟大
乔治·萧伯纳
收入相当的人除了品性迥异之外，并没有什么社会差别。金钱不能说明什么；性格、行为和能力才能代表一切。在收入平等制度下，每个人都会找到他或她理所当然的地位，而不是所有的工人都被划到低工资阶层，所有的富人被划到风光的高收入阶层。人有卓著伟人、平庸之辈以及碌碌小人之别，但是伟人总是那些有所建树之人，而非从小深受母亲溺爱、每年都有父亲赠送巨额财富之人；碌碌小人总是那些心胸狭窄、品德卑劣之人，而不是从未获得任何机会的可怜虫。愚蠢之众总是赞成收入不平等（他们只能凭借这种机会才能为人所知），而真正伟大之人则主张平等相待，其缘由正在于此。
［注释］
-distinction [dɪsˈtɪɪkʃən] n. 区别，差别 the condition or fact of being dissimilar or distinct; difference
-merit [ˈmerɪt] n. 功绩，荣誉，价值 a good feature that deserves praise, reward or admiration
-eminence [ˈemɪnəns] n. 卓越 a position of great distinction or superiority
［作者简介］
萧伯纳（George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950），英国剧作家、评论家，1856年7月26日生于爱尔兰都柏林。1885年萧伯纳开始戏剧创作。到1949年为止，萧伯纳共完成剧本51部，主要包括《恺撒和克娄巴特拉》、《人与超人》、《巴巴拉少校》、《皮格马利翁》等，1925年凭借《圣女贞德》获得诺贝尔文学奖。