ABSTRACT
The satisfactions human beings experience in their social associations depend on the expectations they bring to them as well as on the actual benefits they receive in them. The ratio of exchange between different types of social benefits is affected by the hypothetical equilibrium defined by existing conditions of supply and demand in a manner parallel to the effect of the equilibrium price on the actual price in economic exchange. There are also social norms of fair exchange, and the going rate of exchange in a group is not necessarily, or even typically, identical with what is considered a fair rate of exchange. The relationship between the fair rate and the going rate of social exchange is somewhat parallel to that between the normal price and the average price in economic markets. Organizations and other collectivities require membership attachment, and the adjustment of exchange rates by supply and demand depends on mobility, but social attachments inevitably restrict social mobility.
