ABSTRACT
§ 1. The industrial system, here treated objectively, can be interpreted in terms of human will and satisfaction. The operation of each factor of labour, capital, ability, involves expenditure of human energy consciously directed to some definite end. The thought and will comprised in these activities differ widely in quality, some acts being more creative, others more imitative. —§ 2. Industrial progress consists largely in the better economy of will and intellect throughout the industrial system. Criticism of the competitive system rests ultimately on the waste of social or co-operative energy involved in a clash of wills and a crossing of purposes. This waste differs widely according as the technique of a profession or trade gives prominence to direct self-seeking. The growth of combination brings a fuller consciousness of common purpose, though this is offset by diminished regard for the consumer’s interests. The diminishing sense of social utility of labour due to the complexity of modern industry is its greatest injury. —§ 3. From a subjective economy the land factor must be eliminated, nature being given. A ‘Crusoe’ or a socialistic system is easily realised as a calculus of human ‘costs’ and ‘utilities.’ In order to apply such a calculus to our system, so as to make commercial values correspond with human values, it will be necessary to consider (1) the technical conditions of the work, (2) the nature of the workers, (3) the distribution of the labour-cost, upon the cost side; and similarly (1) the technique of the consumption, (2) the sort of consumers, (3) the distribution of the commodities, upon the utility side. —§ 4. An art of social progress will further require the calculus of current hedonism to be reduced to terms of social good as tested by some ideal standard. The conscious control of industry will thus be realised as a contribution towards the wider art of politics. Social economy in industry aims at securing a natural relation between production and consumption among classes and individuals in accordance with the maxim, ‘from each according to his powers: to each according to his needs.’ This is a general law of distribution in the organic world admitted by Individualism as by Socialism. —§ 5. A subjective interpretation of the ‘surplus’ would express it in waste of life and of work. An economical use of the surplus for health, education, and security would develop and enrich individual personality, substituting a more qualitative for a quantitative economy. Individuation of needs will react on the character of work, imparting new elements of skill and art; each gain is twofold, reducing some vital cost while raising some vital utility of consumption. Thus reformed distribution would issue in (1) enlarged production of objective wealth, (2) diminished vital cost and increased vital utility per unit of production.
