Rural Wealth and Welfare: Economic Principles Illustrated and Applied in Farm LifeFairchild, Geo. T. (George Thompson)
Science
Rural Wealth and Welfare: Economic Principles Illustrated and Applied in Farm Life
Fairchild, Geo. T. (George Thompson)
Agriculture -- Economic aspects; Economics
These are four different kinds of welfare, each of which is essential, and
only confusion of thought follows any attempt to treat them all as wealth,
however they may be intermingled and exchanged. Health is essential in
gaining a full measure of wealth and wisdom, and perhaps in maintaining
genuine character; but a healthy life gives no assurance of complete
welfare. The facts concerning health in a community make a distinct
subject of study for promotion of welfare, and we call it public hygiene.
The science of education deals with ways and means of securing public
wisdom. The science of government includes all facts relative to public
virtue. So the facts by which we know the nature and uses of accumulated
wealth in any community make a distinct study under the name economic
science; it deals with certain definite groups of facts. To call
everything good “wealth” and everything evil “ilth” adds nothing but
confusion to our thoughts.
_Mutual welfare._—Every human being in society is directly interested in
the study of wealth as related to his own and his neighbors’ welfare. No
one can understand his relations to those about him in the family, the
neighborhood, his country and the world without some understanding of the
sources and uses of wealth all about him. His very industry gains its
reward by certain means in society depending upon economic principles. His
motives for accumulating wealth have a distinct place. His uses of
accumulated wealth are a part of the general facts which make wealth
desirable. So the study of wealth in society must be everybody’s study, if
each wishes to do best for himself or for his neighbors. In such study of
welfare every one finds his interests completely blended with the
interests of others. His existence is part of a larger existence called
society, from which he receives himself in large measure and most of his
satisfaction; to which he contributes in like measure a portion of its
essential character and future existence.
The old idea that one gives up freedom of self for the advantages given by
society has no foundation in fact, because we are born into our place in
society without power to escape its advantages, disadvantages or
responsibilities. The maxim “Each for all and all for each” is thoroughly
grounded in the constitution of man; his needs and abilities enforce
society and insist upon community of interests. Even personal wealth
confers little welfare outside of its relations to other human beings. The
whole progress of the human race tends toward acceptance of the clear
vision of Tennyson, where
“All men find their good in all men’s good,
And all men join in noble brotherhood.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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