ChapterTwoBookOne82

Far from having succeeded in any state in the world, we see everywhere that while some live with amenities and an excess of conveniences and without any effort from morning to night, others are so overwhelmed with work and troubles that neither their bodies nor their minds are able to support it, but succumb and perish under the huge load with which they are burdened. It is as I just said with regard to necessities: often some die of repletion and others from lack of food. If these two extremes could be offset by a proportional distribution of the ordinary inconveniences of life, the burden would no longer be so heavy, and some would not (320) mope about doing nothing and suffering nothing at all; others would not perish by dint of working and having all the burden and all the inconveniences on their bodies.

Although it is very difficult for a prince to make things this perfect for several reasons that are the result of the usual blindness of men, which prevents them from knowing their true interests, he must nevertheless endeavor to give them no choice but to do things in this way. The best and main thing that the prince could do would be to make a regulation that would prevent anyone of any rank or situation[^1] from living in his states without an occupation or profession that is useful to the public good, and so that all (321) those who do nothing at all and are only dependent on others are used, even involuntarily, for public works, and so that all towns, villages, communities, guilds and others are enjoined to denounce those who indulge in laziness, do not want to do any useful profession, and only seek to live off the spoils of others, and so that there are workhouses[^2] where idlers are kept and made to work with a kind of ignominy and contempt that puts fear into others. By putting part of the trouble and work on those who are accustomed to doing nothing at all, the others will live more comfortably, and the former will also benefit because in this way, they will escape (322) and protect themselves from the destitution that usually results from laziness and dissolute conveniences.