It is not unusual to speak of what is paid in wages to a labourer as
being thereby _consumed_, as if all profit and loss to the nation were
to be seen in the capitalist's account-book. What is paid for productive
labour is said to be productively consumed; what is paid for
unproductive labour is said to be consumed unproductively. It would be
proper to say, not that it is productively or unproductively _consumed_,
but productively or unproductively _expended_; otherwise, we shall be
obliged to say that it is consumed twice over; the first time
unproductively, perhaps, and the second, it may be, productively.

To pronounce in which way the wages of the labourer are consumed, we
must follow them into the labourer's own hands. As much as is necessary
to keep the productive labourer in perfect health and fitness for his
employment, may be said to be consumed productively. To this should be
added what he expends in rearing children to the age at which they
become capable of productive industry. If the state of the market for
labour be such as to afford him more, this he may either save, or, as
the common expression is, he may spend it. If he saves any portion, this
(unless it be merely hoarded) he intends to employ productively, and it
will be productively consumed. If he spends it, the consumption is for
enjoyment immediately, and is therefore unproductive.

This suggests another correction in the established language. Political
economists generally define the "net produce" to be that portion of the
gross annual produce of a country which remains after replacing the
capital annually consumed. This, as they proceed to explain, consists of
profits and rent; wages being included in the other portion of the gross
produce, that which goes to replace capital. After this definition, they
usually proceed to tell us that the net produce, and that alone,
constitutes the fund from which a nation can accumulate, and add to its