Essays on some unsettled Questions of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill
page 77 of 163 (47%)
page 77 of 163 (47%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
here the words productive and unproductive have been affected with
additional ambiguities, corresponding to the different extension which different writers have given to the term wealth. Some have given the name of wealth to _all things_ which tend to the use or enjoyment of mankind, and which possess exchangeable value. This last clause is added to exclude air, the light of the sun, and any other things which can be obtained in unlimited quantity without labour or sacrifice; together with all such things as, though produced by labour, are not held in sufficient general estimation to command any price in the market. But when this definition came to be explained, many persons were disposed to interpret "_all things_ which tend to the use or enjoyment of man," as implying only all _material_ things. _Immaterial_ products they refused to consider as wealth; and labour or expenditure which yielded nothing but immaterial products, they characterised as unproductive labour and unproductive expenditure. To this it was, or might have been, answered, that according to this classification, a carpenter's labour at his trade is productive labour, but the same individual's labour in learning his trade was unproductive labour. Yet it is obvious that, on both occasions, his labour tended exclusively to what is allowed to be production: the one was equally indispensable with the other, to the ultimate result. Further, if we adopted the above definition, we should be obliged to say that a nation whose artisans were twice as skilful as those of another nation, was not, _ceteris paribus_, more wealthy; although it is evident that every one of the results of wealth, and everything for the sake of which wealth is desired, would be possessed by the former country in a higher |
|