less to "services," to the remuneration of labor of every kind and
grade. People sometimes protest warmly against the idea of treating
labor "like a commodity." If this indignation expresses no more than
a belief that in matters concerning conditions of work, and relations
between employees and the management, the sensibilities of human
nature should be taken into due account, it is based on elementary
decency and commonsense. But if, as sometimes appears, it is directed
against the fact that the remuneration of labor is controlled by the
laws of supply and demand, it is a mere baying at the moon, with
singularly little provocation. For these laws are in no way peculiar
to commodities, and it is no one's fault that they include commodities
too within their scope.

But let us go back to the laws themselves, and probe them and dissect
them, and turn them this way and that, so that we may perceive their
full content, and grasp it firmly in our minds. The third law implies
a prevailing tendency for demand to be equal to supply. This
tendency, as was suggested in Chapter I, can be verified by anyone
from his experience and observation (provided he is a reasonable
person, and not the tiresome kind who would dispute the law of
gravitation because he sees that a feather falls to the ground more
slowly than a stone). But it can also be deduced as a corollary from
the two preceding laws; and to regard it in this way will help us to
appreciate its significance. Start, for instance, by supposing that
demand is in excess of supply. Then the price will tend to rise. After
the price has risen, the supply will become larger, while the demand
will fall away. The excess of demand with which we started will thus
clearly be diminished. But if there remains any portion of this
excess, the same reactions will continue; the price will rise further,
and for the same reason; demand will be further checked and supply