The basic facts of economics : $b A common-sense primer for advanced studentsPost, Louis F. (Louis Freeland)
General
The basic facts of economics : $b A common-sense primer for advanced students
Post, Louis F. (Louis Freeland)
Economics
Individual deliveries, in contrast with Distribution into the two
basic categories, Wages and Rent, consist in the delivery of Wealth
to individuals in proportion to the effective demands of each. Their
demands are limitless, for when satisfied with quantity they naturally
demand quality. But there is a limit to all effective demands. The
limitation on the one hand is the producer’s ability to produce, and
on the other the consumer’s ability to obtain in Trade. Ability to
produce depends in high degree at any time upon the general productive
knowledge of the time. Ability to obtain depends upon the Economic
power in Trade of the individual seeking to gratify his wants. If he
is isolated from all the rest of mankind, he is outside the Economic
circle and can obtain only what he himself directly produces. If he
is one of an absolutely free community, he can obtain what others are
willing to give him in Trade for the service he renders directly or
indirectly to them. If Production be arbitrarily obstructed, whether
by impediments to Natural Resources or to Trade, his ability to obtain
Wealth is not so much according to what he produces or to the service
of any other kind that he renders, but according to his command over
the sources of Production and the channels of Trade whereby he may levy
tribute or escape it.
As human services naturally tend to exchange at par for equally
desirable human services, so do different forms of Wealth, each product
of human service, tend to exchange at par for equally desirable forms
of Wealth; and as Wealth in the Rent category and Wealth in the Wages
category are alike service-products of Labor applied to Land, exchanges
of every kind of Wealth tend to be effected on the basis of equality in
the expenditure of Labor for their Production.
Let it now be carefully observed and faithfully remembered in this
connection, that however various the kind and the amount of Wealth
that individuals receive, each variety is but a subdivision of Wealth
as a whole, and is therefore either Wages or Rent, those being the two
primary divisions of Wealth in Distribution. A “captain of industry”
may get a large share of Wealth for his service while a skilled
laborer gets a small share for his; but each will take his share from
Wages, not from Rent. On the other hand, the owner of a rich mining
opportunity may get a large share of Wealth and the owner of a small
area of farming land or a village building-lot may get a small share;
but each will in that respect get Rent, not Wages. To the extent,
however, that the “captain of industry” derives any part of his income
from Natural-Resource privileges, that part is Rent; and to the extent
that the mine owner or the farm owner or the village lot owner derives
any part of his from his service, that part is Wages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account