Chapter 55 CHAPTER XII. THE GENERAL IMPACT OF PROGRESS ON VALUE

Section 1. The favorable location of capital and labor in a newly developed country depends partly on its connection with the old world markets, where it can sell its products and extract with its future revenues what it currently needs. kinds of supplies. The employment of labor and capital in any place depends on three conditions: first, its natural resources; second, the power to make good use of these resources, arising from the progress of knowledge and the development of social and industrial organization; third, its proximity to There are markets for surplus products.The importance of this last condition is often overlooked; but it stands out when we look at the history of newly developed countries.

It is often said that the real wages of labor and the interest on stock are high where there is plenty of fertile land free of rent, and a favorable climate.But this is only part of the truth.Life was hard for the early settlers of America; nature provided them with plentiful timber and meat at little cost.However, they rarely enjoy the ease and luxuries of life.Even now there are many places (notably in South America and Africa) where natural resources are abundant but capital and labor are stagnant because they lack means of transportation and are cut off from the outside world.Conversely, a mining area located in the desert, once connected with the outside world, can provide high returns to labor and capital (as do commercial ports near the desolate coast). If they rely on local resources, they may only maintain a few residents, and abject poverty.The favorable market which Europe has afforded for the produce of the New World, since the development of steamship traffic, has made North America, Australia, and certain parts of Africa and South America the most favorable and gigantic places of employment of capital and labor never before seen.

But the main reason for the modern prosperity of the newly developed countries is, after all, that the market that Europe offers is not a spot market, but a futures market.A small group of colonists, having acquired the title to a large quantity of fertile land, conceived of its future interest in this present day.They could not achieve this directly, but only indirectly, by exchanging the promise of payment for the vast quantities of goods their land would produce in the future, in exchange for European off-the-shelf goods.In one form or another they mortgaged their new estates to Europe at very high rates of interest.The English and other peoples, who had accumulated ready goods, immediately exchanged them for futures greater than they could get at home: great capital flows to newly developed countries, and the inflow of capital greatly raises the local rate of wages.The new capital gradually penetrated the outlying regions, where capital was so scarce, and so many were desperately in need of it, that it often paid, for a long time, two per cent a month, gradually falling to six per cent a year, Or even five per cent.Because the colonizers are enterprising, and at the same time see the advantage of acquiring property, which will soon be of great value, they all want to be independent proprietors, or employers (if possible); to attract, and most of this wages are paid out of commercial funds obtained from European mortgages or other means.

It is difficult, however, to estimate with any precision real wage rates in remote areas of newly developed countries.The workers are good people, adventurous, hardworking, resolute, and capable.They were all in the prime of life, never sick; they endured all kinds of tortures that ordinary British workers, especially European ordinary workers, could not bear.There was no poor man among them, for all were strong.If someone is sick, he has to go to a more densely populated area, where wages are lower, but a quiet and easy life is also possible.Their wages, in money terms, are high; but there are many comforts and luxuries which they must buy at very high prices, or discard entirely, and if they live in more densely populated places , they will get these things freely (or at a low price).Most of them, however, merely satisfy human needs; and these are easily discarded where no one has or wants them.

As population increases, and the better lands are taken, naturally the marginal labor of the cultivator generally yields less in return for produce; this tends to lower wages a little.Even in agriculture, however, the law of increasing returns is constantly contradicting the law of diminishing returns, and much land, which was at first neglected, yields bountiful harvests after careful cultivation; The development of industry has made various economies of production possible. Thus, the laws of increasing and diminishing returns appear to be evenly matched, with sometimes one law and other times dominating.

If the rates of growth of labor and capital are equal; if the law of production taken together is the law of constant remuneration, the remuneration distributed to capital and labor in the same proportion as before will remain the same, and therefore no change in wages or interest will be necessary. . But if capital increases much more rapidly than labour, the rate of interest must fall; and the rate of wages may rise, at the expense of any share due to a given amount of capital.However, the increase in the total share of capital can be greater than the increase in the total share of labor.

However, regardless of whether the law of commodity production is the law of constant remuneration, the production law of the new land deed is the law of sharply decreasing remuneration.The inflow of foreign capital, though perhaps the same as before, is reduced in comparison with the population.Most of the wages are no longer paid by merchants borrowed from Europe.This is the chief reason for the diminishing necessities, comforts, and luxuries of life which can be earned by a given efficiency of work.But there are two other reasons why the average daily wage in money terms tends to fall.As the variety of comforts and luxuries increased, the average efficiency of labor fell, owing to the influx of immigrants of lesser constitution than the earlier settlers.At the same time, most of these new comforts and luxuries do not come directly within the sphere of money-wages, but lie outside it.

Section II. England's foreign trade in the last century increased her command of comforts and luxuries, and has only of late greatly increased her command of necessities. The present state of the English economy, a direct result of the tendency towards mass production and mass exchange, whether in goods or labour, developed slowly over long periods of time; but it acquired two impetus in the eighteenth century, On the one hand, due to the invention of machinery; on the other hand, due to the increase of overseas consumers, who import large quantities of the same goods.The manufacture of parts by machines and special machines for the various departments of production had already begun.At that time the law of increasing returns first demonstrated its full operation in industrial countries with established industry and large capital.This is especially the case when large capitals are formed into joint-stock companies, or parent companies, or modern trusts.At that time the elaborate "grading" of goods destined for distant markets began, which gave rise to domestic and even international speculative organizations in agricultural markets and stock exchanges, whose future , as well as the permanent organization of entrepreneurs or workers among producers, is at the root of the most serious practical problems that the coming generation will have to solve.

The crux of the modern movement lies in the reduction of most jobs to the same kind of work, in the reduction of the frictions which prevent powerful New methods and new forces to develop transportation.Improvements in road and steamship transportation in the eighteenth century broke up local combinations and monopolies and facilitated the development of combinations and monopolies in large areas.In our time, every extension and reduction of land and sea communications, of the printing press, of the telegraph, and of the telephone, may produce this double tendency. The third section continues.

Although in the eighteenth century, as at present, the national income of Great Britain, with respect to its exports, depended largely on the operation of the law of increasing returns, the manner of this dependence has varied considerably.England then had an almost monopoly on the new methods of industrial production, and for every bale she sold (in any case, when their supply was artificially limited) she could exchange for a great deal of foreign produce.But, partly because the time was not yet ripe for the transport of bulky goods over long distances, her imports from the Far East and America were chiefly the comforts and luxuries of the middle class; The direct effect of this new trade was small, though indirectly the new trade lowered the cost of hardware, clothing, and other domestic manufactured goods consumed by English workers.Because mass production of these things for overseas consumers gets him cheap products.It has little effect on the cost of his food, though.And food had to be produced under a tendency of diminishing returns, which came into play because of the rapid increase in population in new industrial areas where the traditional constraints of narrow rural life no longer existed.Shortly after the war, successive years of poor harvests in France pushed the cost of food to unprecedented heights in Europe.

Gradually, however, foreign trade began to have an impact on the cost of production of our staple foods.As the population of the United States moved west from the Atlantic coast, more and more fertile land suitable for growing wheat was cultivated.The economics of transport (especially in recent years) have increased so much that the total cost of transporting a quart of wheat from a farm outside the cultivated area has fallen sharply, though the distance has increased.There was therefore no need in Great Britain to intensify cultivation.The wheat-growing barren hills that Ricardo's time had so poorly managed had been turned into pastures.The farmer now cultivates only that land which affords him a good reward for his labour.If England, on the other hand, were left alone with her own resources, she would have to struggle on increasingly infertile land, and continually recultivate what was already well cultivated, in order to add a bushel or two to the acre by this heavy labor. .Perhaps, in the average annual crop, cultivation of the kind which merely covers expenses (i.e., cultivation on the margin of cultivation) yields twice as much in Ricardo's time, as England is compelled to produce with her present population. Four times more than the whole grain. Section 4. England benefited less directly from industrial progress than at first appears, but more from the new transport industry. The progress of the technique of industrial production has increased the power of England to satisfy the needs of backward countries; and it is therefore necessary to divert that energy which is spent by hand in making products for her own use, in the production of raw materials and with which to buy British manufactures. In line with the purpose of backward countries.The progress of invention thus opened up a wide field for the sale of England's particular produce, and made it possible for her to produce her food exclusively under conditions in which the law of diminishing returns did not quite manifest itself.But this good fortune was short-lived.Her industrial improvements were imitated, and lately often surpassed, by America, Germany, and other nations.Her specialty product lost almost all of its monopoly value.For example, a ton of steel can buy no more grain and other raw materials in the United States than can be produced locally by the labor and capital of a ton of steel produced by a new method; The efficiency of American and British workers in steelmaking has increased and has declined.It is for this reason, and because of the heavy tariffs imposed on British goods by many countries, that, notwithstanding her great trade, the inventive advances in the technique of industrial production have added more to her real national income than was at first supposed. less. England has no small advantage in being able to produce clothes, furniture, and other goods cheaply for her own consumption; but those improvements in the art of industrial production which she shares with other countries do not directly The quantity of agricultural products for which the products of capital and labor can be exchanged in other countries.Perhaps more than three-quarters of all the benefits she has gained from the industrial progress of the nineteenth century are due to its indirect effects, namely, the reduced costs of transporting passengers and goods, of running water and lighting, of electricity and of news.For the fundamental economic fact of our time is the development of transport, not of industry.It is the transportation industries, both in general and in individual powers, which are developing most rapidly, and which are producing the most troublesome problem, namely, the tendency of big capital to turn the power of economic freedom into annihilation of that freedom .But, on the other hand, it is the transportation industry which has contributed most to the increase of the wealth of England. Section V. Changes in the labor value of corn, meat, shelter, fuel, clothing, running water, light, newsprint, and travel. Thus, what the new economic age has brought about is a huge shift in the relative value of labor and the necessities of life.The nature of many of these changes was unexpected at the beginning of the previous century.At the time, the United States was considered unsuitable for growing wheat; it was too expensive to transport over large distances.At that time the labor-value of wheat (that is, the quantity of labor expended in purchasing a peck of wheat) was at its highest, and now it is at its lowest.It seems that the agricultural daily wages were generally under a peck of wheat, but that in the first half of the eighteenth century they were about a peck, in the fifteenth century a poke and a half, or perhaps a little more, and that the agricultural daily wages are now The salary is two to three pecks.Professor Rogers' estimate of medieval wages is high, but he seems to be representing the better paid part of the population as a whole.In the Middle Ages, even in fairly good years, the wheat was of a lower quality than the common wheat of today; and in bad years, most of it was so moldy that no one eats it now.At the same time, it is difficult to turn wheat into bread without paying a high monopoly price to the mill of the manor lord. In thinly populated places, indeed, nature supplies grass and fodder almost free; and in South America beggars ride on horseback.But in the Middle Ages England was always sufficiently populous to render meat of great labor value, though of poor quality.For oxen, though only one-fifth their present weight, have large bodies; their flesh grows chiefly near the limbs.Because the cattle can't eat enough in winter, they quickly grow fat after eating summer grass, so the meat contains a lot of water, and loses most of its weight when it is cooked.Every late summer and early autumn, people slaughtered the cattle and salted the meat, and salt was very expensive at that time.Even the middle class can hardly get fresh beef in winter.A century ago the working classes ate very little meat, and now, though the price of meat is somewhat higher, they consume perhaps more meat on the average than at any time in the history of England. Next, with regard to the rent of houses, we know that the rent of the city has increased both in its depth and in its breadth.Because the houses in which the increasing number of residents live must pay rent according to the city standard, and this standard has been continuously improved.But the rent itself, which is the sum of the gross rent less the gross rental value of the title, may be a little higher, if any, than has been paid at any previous time for the same premises; Because the turnover rate of capital in the construction industry is relatively low, the labor cost of construction materials has not changed much.It should never be forgotten that those who pay high city rents buy in exchange for the entertainments and other conveniences of modern city life, which many of them would not forsake because they are more advantageous than their own. The total rent is much greater. The labor value of timber, though lower than at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was higher than in the Middle Ages, but that of mud, brick, and stone walls did not vary greatly, and that of iron (not to mention glass) but greatly reduced. Indeed, the belief in rising rents seems to be born of ignorance of the actual housing conditions of our ancestors.The bedroom in a modern suburban craftsman's house is far more elaborate than that of a medieval squire.And back then the working class had no beds other than loose grass infested with bugs and lice in the wetlands.Even under the condition of nakedness and the coexistence of animals and humans, it may be less harmful to human health than under the condition of dignified living with grass that smells of garbage from time to time.But it cannot be denied that the present housing conditions of the poorest classes of our cities are detrimental to mind and body; and, with our present knowledge and resources, we have neither reason nor excuse for their continuation. Fuel, like grass, is often a gift of nature to rare populations; in the Middle Ages, villagers were generally (though not always) able to make small fires with chopping wood to keep warm indoors, and their huts had no chimneys. There is no way to dissipate the heat.But as the population grows, the lack of fuel puts great pressure on the working class. If there is no gas and instead of wood as fuel for household and ironmaking, the progress of Britain will be unimaginable.Coal is now so cheap that even poorer people can heat themselves indoors without having to live in unhealthy, dizzying atmospheres. This is one of the greatest contributions that coal has made to modern civilization; a second, by providing cheap underclothes without which the cleanliness of the masses of the people who inhabit the Serene climate is inconceivable.That is perhaps the chief advantage which England derives from the direct employment of machinery for domestic manufacture and consumption.A still less important contribution is the provision of running water in abundance, even in large cities; and a still more important contribution, by means of oil, is the provision of cheap light, which is not only necessary for some of the work of man Best of all, it is indispensable for evening pastime.To these necessities of civilized life, derived from coal on the one hand, and modern means of transport on the other, we must add (as mentioned above) the cheap and complete steam press and the steaming of letters. A vehicle for the dissemination of news and ideas, and the convenience of travel by steam power.These instruments, supplemented by electricity, make it possible for the masses in countries where the climate is not so hot to sluggishly enjoy civilization; and not only for the whole population of a city like Athens, Florence, or Bruges, And to pave the way for the real self-government and united action of all the peoples of a great nation, and even in some respects of the whole civilized world. Section 6. Progress has raised the value of land in town and country in England; though it has lowered the value of most of the instruments of material production.The increase of capital reduces its due income, but not its total income. We have seen that national income is the total net product of all factors of production in a country, and at the same time the sole source of payment for them; the greater the national income, the greater the share of each factor of production, other things being equal , an increase in the supply of any factor will generally lower its price in favor of the other factors. The above general principles apply especially to land.An increase in the productivity of land supplying a market benefits first those capitalists and workers who possess other factors of production to supply the same market.Nowhere is the influence of new means of communication upon value in modern times more evident than in the history of land; The region participates in the market for its products and declines.Not so long ago, the six counties around London feared that repairing roads would make the outlying parts of England compete with them in supplying London with food.And now the advantage of the English farm is in some respects being diminished by the importation of grain, which is brought into England by steamers, via the Indian and American railroads. But, as Malthus argued and Ricardo recognized, whatever improves the welfare of the people, in the long run also increases the welfare of the landowners.Indeed, in the early eighteenth century, when successive years of poor harvests struck a people unable to import food, rents rose sharply in England.But this rise, by its nature, cannot be sustained any further.The introduction of the free trade in corn in the middle of the nineteenth century, followed by the expansion of the American wheat field, rapidly increased the real value of land in town and country, that is to say, the necessities, security, and The number of luxury items and luxuries. The seventh section continues. Though the development of an industrial environment tends generally to raise the value of land, it also tends to lower the value of machinery and other fixed capital, if their value can be separated from that of the place in which they stand.The sudden onset of prosperity does, in any industry, provide for a time a very high return to the existing capital goods.But things which can be infinitely multiplied cannot long retain their rare value; and if they are fairly durable capital goods, as ships, blast furnaces, and textile machinery, they are likely to be greatly depreciated by rapid technical progress. Still, the value of some things, like railroads and docks, depends largely on their location in the long run.If the location is favorable, the improvement of their industrial environment will, even after deducting the expense of keeping their equipment up to date, raise their pure value. The eighth section continues. Political arithmetic can be said to have begun in the seventeenth century in England.Since then, we know that the amount of wealth accumulated per person in the population has steadily increased. Although man is still somewhat impatient to wait, his willingness to sacrifice the present for future comfort or other enjoyment gradually increases.He acquires greater "far-sightedness"; that is to say, his ability to anticipate the future and prevent it from happening is increased; he is more thrifty, more self-denying, and therefore more willing to value future misfortunes and benefits, these terms are generally used To include the noble and base feelings of the human heart.He is less selfish and therefore more willing to work and wait so that his family will be safe; a bright future looms in which people will generally be willing to work and wait in order to increase public wealth and opportunity for all Live a higher life. Though man is more willing than in past ages to suffer present inconveniences for future advantages, it is doubtful whether we now find him willing to exert greater effort for certain pleasures, both present and future. of.Over the centuries, people in the Western world have continued to become more industrious— Holidays have decreased, working hours have increased, and people have become less and less willing to seek pleasure outside the sphere of work, either voluntarily or under compulsion.However, this movement seems to have reached its peak and is now declining.In all occupations except the highest, men place more importance than before on rest, and grow less impatient with fatigue from overstretching; And willing to endure the constant "torture" of long hours of work.These reasons make them less willing to work hard to meet the needs of the future.If not, their ability to anticipate the future increases even more rapidly, and perhaps (though not without doubt) their desire to acquire social status by the possession of small accumulated wealth increases greatly. An increase of capital per person tends to lower its marginal utility; hence the rate of interest on new investments falls, though not uniformly.It is said that the rate of interest was one cent for a long period of the Middle Ages, but that it was reduced to three per cent in the first half of the eighteenth century, and that it was raised again by the great need for capital in industry and politics, and that during the Great War the rate was relatively high.When political spending stopped, although the supply of gold was very small at that time, interest rates fell; but in the 1860s, due to the increase in gold production, and the construction of railways and the development of new countries required a lot of capital. , it went up again. The peacetime after 1873, combined with a weakening gold supply, brought interest rates down.Now, however, it is rising again, partly due to the increased supply of gold. Section 9. The nature and causes of the changes in the income of the different classes of industry. The development of civilization and the heightened sense of responsibility towards the young have diverted most of the country's increasing wealth from investment in material capital to the cultivation of human resources.The result was a massive increase in the supply of skills that greatly increased national income and raised the average income of the population as a whole.However, it strips away most of the rarity value skills have always had, and makes them less rewarding relative to general progress (not absolutely).At the same time, many jobs which were not long ago counted as skilled, and which are still called skilled, are placed on the same wage scale as unskilled labour. Scribing is a notable example.It is true that many kinds of work in the office require a high degree of intelligence and character, but almost everyone can easily learn the job of bookkeeping, and it may not be long before Englishmen and women can write well .When everyone can write, copywriting, which has traditionally earned more wages than almost any kind of manual labor, will become commonplace rather than skilled.In fact, the better artisan jobs are more educational for a man, and are better paid than those of the clerk, which require neither judgment nor responsibility.Generally speaking, the greatest service a mechanic can do to his son is to train him to do the work at hand, so that he may understand the mechanical, chemical, and other scientific principles connected with it; and take an interest in innovations in the work; if he His son has considerable talent, that is, he is more likely to emerge as a mechanic than as a clerk. Secondly, a new branch of industry is often difficult simply because it is unfamiliar to the average man; the work in which requires great energy and skill, once becomes the order of the day, can be performed by ordinary men, even women and children. .Its wages start high, but decline as the work becomes more popular.This leads to an underestimation of the rise in average wages, for it is so that many statistics, which seem to be typical of the general movement of wages, are actually made on the basis of trades which were relatively new a hundred or two hundred years ago, and are now in the hands of those who are less capable than their forerunners. As a result of these changes, there will inevitably be an increase in the number of people engaged in so-called skilled jobs, whether or not the term is now properly used.The increasing number of workers in the higher trades has caused the average wages of all workers to rise much more rapidly than the average typical wages in all trades. In the Middle Ages, although some talented men lived their lives as artisans and became artists; yet artisans, as a class, were then closer to unskilled laborers than they are now.At the beginning of the new industrial era in the mid-eighteenth century, artisans lost many of their old artistic traditions and were inferior to modern skilled artisans in schoolwork and in the precision and dexterity with which difficult tasks were performed with precision.At the beginning of the previous century, a change began that shocked observers by the widening social divide between skilled and unskilled workers; wages for artisans rose to about twice those of ordinary workers.Because of the massive increase in demand for highly skilled labor (especially in metallurgy), the best elements of the labor force and their children were rapidly incorporated into the ranks of artisans.The abolishment of the old exclusiveness of the artisans at that time made them an aristocracy of workers, more talented and less born than ever; .However, some of the simpler technologies gradually lose their rarity value as they cease to be novelties; and at the same time there is an ever-increasing demand for the abilities of people traditionally considered to be in unskilled occupations.Real wages, for example, rose rapidly in two representative occupations, road workers and agricultural laborers, who increasingly used expensive and complex machinery formerly considered the monopoly of skilled labor.The wages of the agricultural laborers would have risen even more markedly than they would have been had the spread of modern ideas in the agricultural districts had not driven many of the ablest children there from the country to join the railroads or factories, or into the towns as policemen, coachmen, or porters.Those who remained in the country were better educated than before, and though their gifts, perhaps, were less than average, they earned real wages much higher than their fathers. Skilled jobs requiring conscientiousness, such as furnace-workers and roller-rollers in ironworks, require great physical strength and great inconvenience, and they are highly paid.Because the trend of the times makes those who can engage in high-level jobs and easily obtain good wages, except for high remuneration, unwilling to endure torture. The tenth section continues. Next we should discuss the relative changes in the wages of male workers (old and prime), female workers and child workers. The conditions of industry change so rapidly that in some trades long experience is of little value, and in many it is of far less value than the rapid acquisition of new ideas and adaptation of habits to new conditions.After fifty a man is bound to earn less wages than before thirty; and this induces those artisans to conform to the unskilled, and their natural inclination to marry early is often encouraged by that desire, which One wish is that their home maintenance costs can be reduced before their wages start to shrink. A second tendency of the same nature, and an even more pernicious one, is that of the wages of child labourers, relative to that of their parents.Machinery has replaced many laborers, but not many children; the customary restraints which exclude children from certain trades are disappearing; these changes, along with the spread of education, have been beneficial in almost every other way. , and are harmful in this respect, that they make it possible for boys, and even girls, to despise their parents, and to fend for themselves. The wages of women workers have risen more rapidly than those of men, for the same reason. Insofar as it tends to develop their faculties, this is a great merit; but insofar as it leads them to neglect their duties in forming a good home and in developing the qualities and abilities of their children to the utmost. In theory, it is a loss. Section 11. Remuneration for Special Abilities. The relative decline in earnings of moderately able (though carefully trained) is accentuated by the rise in the earnings of many exceptionally talented people.Medium oil paintings have never been as cheap as they are now, and medium oil paintings have never been as expensive as they are now.An entrepreneur of average ability and average fortune now earns a lower rate of profit on his capital than ever before; whereas the speculations which a man of exceptional genius and fortune can engage in are so extensive that he can Accumulate massive wealth faster than ever before. This change is chiefly due to two causes; first, the general increase of wealth; and second, the development of new means of transportation by which men, once they have acquired a dominant position, can put their organizational or speculative talents to work. In those undertakings which are larger in scope and cover a wider area than before. The first reason alone has led some lawyers to charge extremely high fees; With his reputation, fortune, or both at stake, a wealthy client pays any premium to hire the best lawyer.It is also this first reason that can command extremely high prices for those horsemen, painters, and musicians who have special talents.In all these occupations, the highest wages in our time are unprecedented.But as the number of singers of the kind to which the human voice can reach is so limited, it is not impossible for any singer to obtain ten thousand pounds, as Mrs. Billington is said to have earned in one season in the early part of the last century, almost As much as the titans of the contemporary corporate world earn. The combination of these two reasons puts great power and great wealth in the hands of entrepreneurs in modern America and other countries, who have a combination of first-class talent and luck. Indeed, a large part of the profits gained has, in some cases, been derived from the bankruptcy of defeated speculative rivals.On other occasions, however, they have been acquired chiefly by the high economy of a great organizational genius, brought to bear in dealing with a new and great problem: the founders of the Vanderbilt family, for example, The New York Central railroad system was in order, and he saved the American people perhaps more than he accumulated himself. §12. The effect of progress upon the rise of the wages of labor is greater than is commonly supposed, and perhaps lessens, rather than increases, the employment vagaries of free labour. But these fortunes are exceptional; the spread of education, and the thrift of thrift among the masses, and the chances of safe investment afforded by new methods of enterprise to small capitals, are increasingly affecting the middle incomes.所得税和房捐报表，商品消费统计，政府和公司中各级职员的工资卡，都表明中产阶级的收入比富人增长得快；技工的工资比自由职业者阶级增长得快；强健的非熟练工人的工资甚至比一般技工增长得也快。富人的总收入，现在比从前，或许不占英国全部收入的较大部分。但是，在美国，土地的总价值正在急剧上升；优秀的劳动人民正在把土地转让给劣等移民，财政寡头日益获得大权，财产所得总额，比劳动所得有所增加，富人的总收入增长得最快，这也许可能是真的。 不能否认，工资的上涨，如伴以失业现象的增加，就会失去它的部分利益。就业的无常，是一种奇灾大祸，应当引起公众的注意；但是，几种原因凑在一起，就使它有所夸大。 如一个大工厂部分开工时，消息传遍邻里，也许报纸把它传遍全国；但是，当一个独立生产者，甚或一个小业主一个月内只能有几日的工作干时，却很少有人知道；因此，在现代，工业上不论发生什么纠葛，似乎比以前更加重要。在以前，有些工人是长工，但没有自由，是在体罚下来进行工作的。我们没有充分的理由来设想，中世纪的技工经常就业。 现在欧洲最严重的就业无常，存在于西部最带有中世纪色彩的手工业和东欧与南欧中世纪传统最浓厚的那些工业中。 在许多方面，雇工中实际上成为长年工人的部分，是在节节上升。例如，这在发展最快的许多运输业部门中就是一个通例。运输业在某些方面是十九世纪后半期的典型工业，如同加工工业在前半期一样。虽然发明的迅速进步，式样的千变万化，尤其是信用的不稳定，的确给现代工业带来一些扰乱因素，但是，如我们立即就知道的，其他影响正在向着相反的方向起着强大的作用，因此，似乎没有充分理由认为就业无常整个说来是在增加着。