In the foregoing paragraphs we have assumed that the inability of the business men under consideration to get living profits is due to their own lack of capacity as compared with their more efficient competitors. When, however, their competitors are not more efficient, but are enabled to undersell through the use of unfair methods, such as adulteration of goods and oppression of labour, a different moral situation is presented. Honest and humane business men undoubtedly have a claim upon society to protection against such unfair competition. And the consumers are under obligation to make reasonable efforts to withhold their patronage from those business men who practise dishonesty and extortion. _The Question of Superfluous Business Men_ Although we have rejected as impractical the proposal to set a legal limit to profit-incomes, we have to admit that many of the abler business men would continue to do their best work even if the profits that they could hope to obtain were considerably smaller in volume. These men hold a strategic position in industry, inasmuch as they are not subject to the same degree of constant competition as the other agents of production.[164] Were the supply of superior business capacity more plentiful, their rewards would be automatically reduced, and the burden of profits resting upon society would be to that extent diminished. On the other hand, the number of mediocre business men, especially in the distributive industries, is much larger than is necessary to supply the wants of the community. This constitutes a second unnecessary volume of payments under the head of profits. Is there no way by which these wastes can be reduced? The volume of exceptionally large profits could be diminished by an extension of the facilities of technical and industrial education. Thus the number of persons qualifying as superior business men could be gradually increased, competition among this class of men would be intensified, and their rewards correspondingly diminished.