The Socialists of our day would prefer to see the whole net income of a people employed in the satisfaction of the necessary wants of an ever increasing population. By this procedure, as a natural consequence, we should witness first the curtailing of the taxing power, of the funds for the satisfaction of the more refined wants and of the saving of capital, nor would it be long before even the existing generation would experience the bitterness of this "living from hand to mouth." After a time, even the possibility of progress and even of mere increase of population would cease. _Hermann_, Staatsw. Untersuch., 297 ff., has better than almost any one else developed the theory of income, and he lays most stress on the satisfaction of wants as the chief aim of public economy. _Kröncke_, Das Steuerwesen, 1804, 381 ff.; Grundsätze einer gerechten Besteuerung, 1819, 93 f., may be considered the predecessor who prepared the way for him. Compare the profound work of _Bernhardi_, Versuch einer Kritik der Gründe die für grosses und kleines Grundeigenthum angeführt werden, St. Petersburg, 1848. Many controversies on this subject may be closed by a more accurate understanding as to terms. Thus, for instance, when _Rau_, Handbuch, embraces in the cost of production the necessary maintenance of material-workmen, and of those engaged in the labor of commerce; or when _Jacob_, Staatswissenschaft, § 496, and _Storch_, Einkommen, 116 ff., even the necessary support of every class useful to society, their valuation of the gross national income is in only apparent conflict with our doctrine on the subject.] SECTION CXLVIII. THE TWO PHASES OF INCOME.