sires. The energetic idler may be doing his worst
for the community without being ranked as a spendthrift, because he makes
such idleness respectable. It should be the desire of all good citizens to
increase the ability of every other citizen, not only to live, but to live
well. This thriftlessness can be overcome only by a strong public
sentiment that corrects the early tendencies of youth to waste of means
and energy.

_Waste in rivalry._--There is another kind of wastefulness resulting from
excessive competition for a particular business or a particular trade.
Immense amounts are expended upon rival advertisements, all of which enter
into the general cost to consumers. A multitude of retail dealers maintain
stocks of goods entirely out of proportion to the needs of the community,
because they are rivals in trade. Very likely the business rents are
higher than they need be because of such rivalry. Not only is there a
strong competition for a place, but also for showy equipment and elegance
of display. All this could be saved by better organization. A still more
evident waste is from the multiplication of agents and middle men of all
kinds, employed simply in catching trade. Some of them act simply as
interlopers, hoping to gain a small commission without the use of capital
or painstaking in their business. These are the useless middle men
maintained at the expense of the community. Full market reports and
general information of buyers and sellers greatly reduce such waste.

Chapter XXVI. Social Organization For Consumption.

_Individualism._--While the social organization is necessarily thought of
as a group of individuals, whose individual wants and plans and growth and
character must be the chief incentive for action, it is necessary to avoid
the extreme of individualism. In escaping from the false analogy implied
in considering society an organism, there is a tendency to make the
individual not only of final importance but independent of association.
Excess of competition is represented in the maxim, "Every man for
himself." In the effort to carry out this maxim and in opposition to
restraints of society, whether by law or by custom, many are led to
advocate an abolition of organization, leaving all welfare to be secured
by appeal to the individual judgment and conscience of men. It is true
that back of all law is the law of righteousness in individual souls.

Under the name of "autonomy" theorists propos