one too dependable) toward rigidity.

CONCLUSION

Sec. 19. The argument may now be summarily reviewed.

I. How are we to understand the acquisition, by an individual, of what
are called new economic needs and interests? Except by a fairly obvious
fallacy of retrospection we cannot regard this phenomenon as a mere
arousal of so-called latent or implicit desires. New products and new
means of production afford "satisfactions" and bring about objective
results which are unimaginable and therefore unpredictable, in any
descriptive fashion, in advance. In a realistic or empirical view of the
matter, these constitute genuinely new developments of personality and
of social function, not mere unfoldings of a preformed logical or vital
system. "Human nature" is modifiable and economic choice and action are
factors in this indivisible process (Sec.Sec. 2-4). Now "logically" it would
seem clear that unless a new commodity is an object of desire it will
not be made or paid for. On the other hand, with equal "logic," a _new_
commodity, it would seem, _cannot_ be an object of desire because all
desire must be for what we already know. We seem confronted with a
complete _impasse_ (Sec. 5). But the _impasse_ is conceptual only. We have
simply to acknowledge the patent fact of our recognition of the new as
novel and our interest in the new in its outstanding character of
novelty. We need only express and interpret this fact, instead of
fancying ourselves bound to explain it away. It is an interest not less
genuine and significant in economic experience than elsewhere (Sec.Sec. 6, 7).
Its importance lies in the fact that it obliges us to regard what is
called economic choice not as a balancing of utilities, marginal or
otherwise, but as a process of "constructive comparison." The new
commodity and its purchase price are in reality symbols for
alternatively possible systems of life and action. Can the old be
relinquished for the new? Before this question is answered each system
may be criticized and interpreted from the standpoint of the other, each
may be supplemented by suggestion, by dictate of tradition and by
impulsive prompting, by inference, and by conjecture. Finally in
experimental fashion an election must be made. The system as accepted
may or may not be, in terms, identical with one of the initial
alternatives; it can never be identical in full meaning and perspective
with either one. And in the end we have not chosen the n