The Distribution of Wealth  (English, Paperback, Carver Thomas Nixon)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE FORMS OF WEALTH AND INCOME There are a great many things in the world about us to which we are economically indifferent, although they are absolutely necessary for our existence. We do not care to own or to possess them exclusively, for the sole reason that they are so abundant that no one needs to give himself any concern about getting them. There is enough to go around and to abundantly satisfy all who need them; consequently they have no value and are not classified as wealth. Since the supply is so great that every one has all that he wants, no one could sell any portion which he might appropriate. No one would want that particular portion when he already had enough of the same thing. Since it is not necessary to economize in their use, they are not economic goods, or wealth. But all appropriable things which are scarce enough to leave some wants unsatisfied are, in the time and place where they are wanted, economic goods. Men have to economize in the use of such things. Since there are not enough to go around, men must compete with one another for their possession. The civilized mode of competing for such things is to bid for them, offering other goods or services in exchange for them. Therefore they have value, and they figure on the market. Each unit of such a commodity is wanted by some one whose well-being, as he conceives it, will be improved by the possession of it. Of the former class of non-economic goods it can not be said that any individual considers that his well-being would be improved by the ownership or possession of any specific unit, though of course his well-being may depend absolutely upon the existence of such things in a general sense. As stated in a previous chapter, though men could not live at all without air, yet any particul...