distorted and disappointing total attainment in the end. But to say
that one actually plans and controls his expenditures along various
lines by the ultimate aim of attaining equivalent terminal utilities on
each is quite another story. It is much like saying that the square
inches of canvas assigned in a picture to sky and sea and crannied wall
are arranged upon the principle of identical and equal effects for
artist or beholder from the last inches painted of each kind. The
formula of the equality of marginal effects is no constructive
principle; it is only a concise if indeed somewhat grotesque way of
phrasing the essential fact that no change of the qualitative whole is
going to be made, because no imperfection in it as a whole is felt.[52]

Sec. 12. We come, then, to the problem of the individual's encounter with a
new commodity. In general, a purchase in such a case must amount to more
or less of a departure from the scheme of life in force and a transition
over to a different one. And a new commodity (in the sense in which the
term has been used above) is apt to be initially more tempting than an
addition along some line of expenditure already represented in the
budget. The latter, supposing there has been no change of price and no
increase of income, is usually a mere irregularity, an insurgent
departure from some one specification of a total plan without
preliminary compensating adjustment or appropriate change at other
points. The erratic outlay, if considerable, will result in sheer
disorder and extravagance--indefensible and self-condemned on the
principles of the individual's own economy. But with a new commodity the
case stands differently. It is more interesting to consider a really new
proposal than to reopen a case once closed when no evidence distinctly
new is offered. A sheer "temptation" or an isolated impulse toward new
outlay along a line already measured in one's scheme has the force of
habit and a presumption of un-wisdom to overcome. If the case is one not
of temptation but of "being urged" one is apt to answer, "No, I can make
no use of any more of _that_." But a new commodity has the charm of its
novelty, a charm consisting in the promise, in positive fashion, of new
qualitative values about which a new entire schedule will have to be
organized. Partly its strength of appeal lies in its radicalism; it
gains ready attention not only by its promise but by its boldness.
"Preparedness" gains a more