lotka: objective standard of value 453 



to the spices added to food : they have not themselves any appre- 

 ciable food- value; nevertheless they fulfill an important function 

 in stimulating the appetite. And though the prime motive of the 

 man who labors in order to secure for himself luxuries, while others 

 are in actual want of necessities, may not be altruistic, neverthe- 

 less, in all but exceptional cases his activity will on the whole 

 contribute to the total assets of the community, whereas, as an 

 idle non-producer he would still consume values without produc- 

 ing any — in other words, much as the ''idle rich" may resent the 

 statement, he would in point of fact be living at the expense of the 

 community, just like his despised brother in the poorhouse. 



This must not be taken to imply that the taste for luxuries is 

 absolutely essential in an ideally constituted community: If all 

 men were willing, after they have satisfied all their own wants, to 

 continue laboring from purely philanthropic motives for the good 

 of others, the useful function of luxuries, such as indicated above, 

 would be eliminated. Just in the same way an individual with a 

 thoroughly healthy and well-regulated appetite has no need of 

 spices in his food, or of other stimulants. But in the existing 

 order of things, which principally concerns the economist, luxuries 

 do exert the beneficial influence indicated above, and therefore 

 have a value, which is properly gauged, like that of any other 



commodity, by the differential coefficient ^r^ , formed with due 



regard to all the circumstances bearing upon the case. 



Somewhat similar is the answer with which the writer would 

 forestall certain other objections which will no doubt be raised by 

 some against the application of the standard of value here pro- 

 posed : These persons will point out, perhaps with some feeling, 

 that some of the greatest values of all, ethical and esthetic values, 

 utterly fail to be justly gauged by their quantitative effect upon 

 the rate of growth of the species. 



To this it is answered that ethical values, at any rate, have in 

 the great majority of cases a very obviously beneficial effect upon 

 the growth of the species. There is of course such a thing as 

 misplaced charity, and "favoring the survival of the unfit" — 

 things which have been made the subject of considerable discussion 



