The vast majority of those who employ capital for the making of profits mingle their own daily labor in an intimate way with their capital. A truck-driver who owns his own truck; a small grocer who lives at the back of his grocery; a fisherman who owns his own nets and a “one-lunger” motorboat--what is the economic motive in their case? It is scarcely distinguishable from the motives of a skilled workman who makes no profits, but receives wages only. Enough for the family to eat; a comfortable home; opportunities for the children; recognition by one’s fellows as amounting to something; a chance at amusements and recreations (to own a radio-set and a motor-car, of course), and--very important--security against sickness and old age--these are the meanings of prosperity for such small capitalists, at least the fundamental and primary meanings. One of these meanings, as desire for security, may become dominant; or secondary meanings may arise, as wanting to outdistance a particular competitor; and the individual may so identify himself with the mechanism of his occupation that his establishment becomes practically an end in itself. So complicated, and so modifiable, is the economic drive in its more simple and human aspects. At the higher points in the scale of possessions and of power we see the same fundamental motives at work, but in changed proportions and with different proliferations. Some drives decrease or disappear simply because there is now a regular and abundant supply for the wants involved. When wealth comes, one no longer bothers much about mere necessities; instead, one reaches out for luxuries, for variety, or for intangible goods such as “standing” in “society” or in financial circles. The desire for security, rather paradoxically, appears to grow rather than become quiescent when insecurity of the primary type recedes. The reason is that the possessor tends to identify himself and his family with his “pile,” so that whenever the “pile” increases, not only is there more to protect against shrinkage, but there is also a bigger-seeming self to feel the loss. It is said that perhaps no other single motive plays as large a part in the minds of the financially already-strong as longing to get safely above the buffets of circumstance--to be utterly secure. But how much must one accumulate if one is to be superior to the vicissitudes of fortune? In the words of Harry Lauder, “When is a man fu’? Eh? Eh?” I protect what I have by adding a financial outpost; then this requires protection. Thus the motive of security transforms itself into the policy of increasing possessions without limit. Oddly enough, one of the motives of religion also is desire to be safe in a changing and largely unpredictable world. I have been young, and now am I old; Yet have I never seen the righteous man forsaken, Nor his children begging bread.