ABSTRACT
Profit, it was suggested, is not in the main due to the existence of a high minimum supply price of undertakers, but to limitations on the facility of their supply. Rather is profit a gain of wider opportunity—a surplus which the man of good fortune can enjoy, because he shares this good fortune only with a few. During a period of economic progress the actual income of the undertaker will contain not only “normal profits“—the profits that are left in his hands in the long period—but also a considerable part of the “quasirent“ of change—the profits of the short period. Gains may accrue to the undertaker through changes other than those which increase the total net product of industry. Large profits may be coincident with economic decline and with economic progress. Economic progress will bestow its proudest share on those who possess some advantage, and leave only the crumbs of the residue for the Lazaruses of a dependent class.
