higher pay than
women.

CHAPTER X

THE REAL COSTS OF PRODUCTION

Sec.1. _Comparative Costs_. Beneath the great diversity of the
considerations which are applicable to the different agents of
production, certain general conclusions emerge from the analysis of
the last four chapters. In no case did we find that the aggregate
supply of the agent was determined by clear and certain economic laws,
possessing any fundamental significance. The supply of natural
resources is a fixed thing, quite independent of the efforts or the
desires of man. However the supply of capital and the supply of labor
may react under present conditions towards economic stimuli, these
reactions possess no quality of inevitability and bear no clear
relation to "what should be." The supply of risk-bearing responds
perhaps more decidedly to the prospects of increased reward; but it is
so intimately associated with special knowledge and the qualities of
business enterprise, as to leave some uncertainty attaching even to
this conclusion. When, on the other hand, we turn to the
apportionment of these factors among different uses, we find relations
which are both clear and fundamental. Laws emerge which state at once
not only "what is" or at least "what tends to be," but also "what
should be"; and it is the fact that they taste "what should be" that
gives them their fundamental character.

These conclusions enable us to give a general answer to the question
which was raised at the end of Chapter V: What are the ultimate real
costs to which the money cost of production correspond? The attempt
has often been made to relate money costs to such things as the effort
of working and the sacrifice of waiting. The existence of such costs
is beyond dispute. Much saving does mean a sacrifice of immediate
enjoyment to the man who saves. Most labor is irksome and disagreeable
in itself, and involves strain and wear and tear; while all labor
means a deprivation of the utility of leisure. Workpeople, moreover,
do not grow on gooseberry bushes, but must be fed and clothed from the
cradle; and their rearing and maintenance represents a real cost which
someone must incur.

But the existence (or the importance) of such costs is one thing,
their relation to money costs is another. In Chapter VIII we saw how
difficult it was to establish any clear relation between the rate of
interest and the sacrifice of saving. The costs of labor present
similar difficulties.