Chapter 39: Income and Social Service

1. What is it to earn a living? How many people do it?

2. When is a man poor?

3. Would it be a good thing if the boot-black got a dollar a shine?

4. Does luck have greater influence on business success in an old country or a new one?

5. Ditto in agriculture, mining, commerce, or manufactures?

6. A rare coin and a piece of land sold for the same price one year, and the next year both sold for double the amount. Was there an unearned increment in both cases, and of the same kind?

7. If rewards were equal, what would determine the choice of work?

NOTE.--The most important contributions to the theory of
consumption have been made by S. N. Patten in his numerous
writings, among them: _The Consumption of Wealth_ (1889);
_Theory of Dynamic Economics_ (1892); _The Theory of
Prosperity_ (1902). A number of the ideas are well
restated in more simple terms by E. T. Devine in
_Economics_, especially pp. 375-396, and 73-111 (applies to
chapter 41).