y or scarcity (to use an elliptic phrase)
upon the outcome of distribution is easily understood if it is kept in
mind that the distributive process is one of repeated negotiation and
bargain. In this process each group or agent strives to get a high
return for its services in production. There is a steady, though
imperfect competition between the various units of each and every group
or agent for employment; there is likewise a steady, though imperfect,
competition for the use of the various units of each and every group or
agent. These conditions require no elaboration.

It is in this process of competition for employment, and competition to
employ, that the return to labor--wages--is decided, simultaneously with
the return to each and every group or agent. The return to labor will be
high if the employment of the ordinary worker, _as part of a productive
organization_, adds considerably to the total of market values produced.
For if the ordinary wage earner, by his work, makes possible a
considerable addition to the market values produced, competition among
employers for men will lead to the payment of high wages, and vice
versa.

Now this last result will be largely determined by the relative plenty
or scarcity of the various agents of production. If the productive
organization has at its command a plentiful supply of capital; if in the
community there are many men possessed of a high order of business
ability; if then, labor for the commoner tasks of production is
relatively scarce, the work of the ordinary wage earner will be a means
of adding considerably to the total of market values produced. Or, as it
is sometimes put, each use of labor will be an important use. Labor will
be in great demand, and wages will be high. If the opposite conditions
exist, the outcome will be reversed. In other words, there is a tendency
for work to be highly valued when the number of men available for doing
it is small and when the work is performed with the aid of highly
perfected machinery, in a community in which able business men are
plentiful. Each laborer will find his services easily sold for good
wages; for his labor will be an important aid to production.

A word of warning should be added to this summary conclusion.

It does not follow that because the wage incomes of the individual
laborers are high, the total relative share of the product which takes
the form of wages will be high. The wages received by individual wage