1. THE SOURCE OF WEALTH
The first demand upon us is to make sure that we know the source of the
things that satisfy want.43 But it is quite unnecessary to tediously specify
these and trace them to their origin in detail. In searching for the source
of one we shall discover the source of all.
43. For it is ability or inability to satisfy his wants that determines
whether or not a man is poor. He who has the power to procure what he wants,
as he wants it, and in satisfactory quality and quantity, is not poor. No
matter how he gets the power, provided he keeps out of the penitentiary,
he is accounted rich.
As a common object of this kind, the production of which is a familiar
process, bread is probably the best example for our purpose. Let us, then,
carefully
trace bread to its source. To make the results of our work clear to the
eye as well as to the ear we will construct a chart as we proceed. The
chart
should begin with a classification of Bread with reference to Man, for
it is as an object for satisfying the wants of man that we consider bread
at
all. Is Bread a part of the personality of Man? or is it an object external
to him? That is our first question. The answer is so obvious that a child
could make no mistake. Bread is external to Man. It should, therefore,
be classified with what for brevity we will call "External Objects." It
is also a product having certain constituents.
Let us so arrange the chart as to indicate these facts and also to provide
a place for particularizing the constituents of bread as we ascertain them.
Thus: [chart]
Now let the necessary constituents of bread be inserted. Any housewife,
any kitchen girl, knows what they are as well as does the most expert baker
or learned chemist. They are named in the place reserved for them in the
chart: [chart]
In respect of Man the constituents of Bread all fall into two general classes:
Man, and objects that are external to him — or, briefly, External Objects.
Thus: [chart]
While all these External Objects are alike in the one particular that they
are external to Man, some of them may differ from others in respects which,
for clear thinking, must be distinguished. Compare the first two External
Objects — the lot of land and the oven — and a radical difference
at once appears. The lot of land is a natural object. The oven is an artificial
object. The lot exists independently of man's art; the oven can have no existence
whatever as an oven but for man's art. 44 And when the remaining External
Objects are considered the same difference appears. Objects are considered
the same difference appears. All of them, Bread included, differ from the
lot of land precisely as the oven does; they are artificial.45 Let us note
this difference upon our chart: [chart]
44. This difference is frequently ignored, even by political economists;
but it is plain to any intelligent mind that no reasoning can be trusted
which does not distinguish a difference so radical.
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