The Principles of Economics Part 58

7. What is meant by the standard of life?

NOTE.--The subject of population generally is discussed under the name of "The Malthusian Doctrine" and much s.p.a.ce is given to it in the texts. So much useless controversy has been occasioned by the ambiguities of Malthus's argument that it seemed best not to introduce this difficulty into the text. The subject is discussed with broadest view by A. T. Hadley, _Economics_, Secs. 47-60.

The writer attempted to make a judicial study of Malthus and his work in _Versuch einer Bevolkerungslehre_, Jena, 1894, and sought to put the discussion on higher ground in an article in the _Yale Review_, August, 1898, "The Essay of Malthus, a Centennial Review."

CHAPTER 22. CONDITIONS FOR EFFICIENT LABOR

1. Is hunger the cause of food?

2. Is there any relation between a republican form of government and the growth of manufactures.

3. What are the necessary conditions to the building of a house: (_a_) natural forces; (_b_) changes in material things; (_c_) human activities; (_d_) social conditions?

4. Is the public school system an economic factor? Where among the four preceding heads would you cla.s.sify it?

5. From an economic standpoint, can we say that robbery really reduces the wealth in existence?

6. When does an industrious man stop working on his own farm, and why?

7. With a given number of workers, what may be causes of differences in the labor-supply?

8. Would men work better if they ate more?

9. What moral agencies increase the efficiency of labor?

10. Is there a strong selfish motive for men to increase their efficiency in most industries? How effective is it?

11. What effect has republican government on the efficiency of labor?

12. Why is the variety of occupations greater or less than formerly?

What is influencing the change?

13. What cases have you seen where great skill came from practice?

14. What gain is it for men to work together instead of singly?

15. With increasing division of labor is there greater or less opportunity for the payment of laborers according to the piece-wage plan?

16. Discuss the following statement: Under the piece-work system the foreman looks out for the quality and the operative for the quant.i.ty of the work; under the time-wage system the foreman looks out for the quant.i.ty and the laborer for the quality of the work.

17. What remedy has the foreman for an inefficient laborer working under the time-wage system?

18. Is time- or piece-work best adapted to the following kinds of laborers: coal-miners, coopers, farm-hands, printers, engravers, shoe-factory hands, railroad brakemen, telegraph operators?

CHAPTER 23. THE LAW OF WAGES

1. What is the effect of free common schools on the comparative wages of skilled and of unskilled laborers?

2. What would be the effect of technical and industrial schools on the wages of artisans?

3. If a man is not content with $2 a day, why does he not do work that is paid $5 a day?

4. What is the effect on wages of differences in the danger, pleasurableness, social distinction, expense of preparation, of occupation?

5. If women are paid less than men for the same work, why are men employed at all?

6. What is the difference between these definitions: wages is the share of labor; wages is the payment by one man to another for his services?

7. If the supply of labor of any cla.s.s were to be decreased 10% would wages rise in like proportion?

8. Since under the piece-work system a man is paid only for what he does, is there any reason for discharging a workman employed under this plan whose efficiency falls below the average?

CHAPTER 24. THE RELATION OF LABOR TO VALUE

1. May a singer of songs or a mixer of drinks be called a productive laborer?

2. Are fine products high in price because wages are high, or vice versa?

3. Is common, unskilled labor "scarce" (in any reasonable sense of the word) in China? in the United States?

4. Can a manufacturer pay the same to laborers if the product will be marketed next year, as he can if it is to be marketed to-morrow? If so, how is the value of the labor adjusted to its product?

NOTE.--An able discussion of the effect of discounting in the sale of labor in the market is given by Bohm-Bawerk, _Positive Theory of Capital_, pp. 313-318 _et seq._; see also Wieser, _Natural Value_, numerous pa.s.sages. The changes in industrial organization are treated with historic insight by Hadley, _Economics_, Secs. 341-354. F.

W. Taussig's _Wages and Capital_ (1896) gives a sympathetic interpretation of the wage-fund doctrine; the work is especially valuable for its excellent review of the history of the subject and for the chapters a.n.a.lyzing the modern industrial process.

CHAPTER 25. THE WAGE SYSTEM AND ITS RESULTS

1. Why has machinery changed the relations of workman to master?

2. In what ways does labor get paid for its share, and who pays it?

3. Will a day's work of a common laborer buy more to-day than it would a half century ago? Why?

4. Are the opportunities for workmen to rise to the rank of masters as great as formerly?

5. Are wages independent of the other kinds of income?

CHAPTER 26. MACHINERY AND LABOR

1. Do you think that the amount of work is reduced by new machinery?

Point out ambiguities in the question.

2. What is the difference to the workman whether he becomes more efficient or works with a better machine?