Science in Public Affairs 



Europe, numerous experiments of communist 

 societies, to say nothing of the various forms of 

 profit-sharing and other schemes for stimulating 

 individual and group energy practised by private 

 business firms all these phenomena present an in- 

 ductive basis for a science of economic psychology 

 serving an act of industrial progress. 



The chief immediate objection of such an art 

 would be to assist the organisation of businesses, 

 trades, and inter-trade relations upon a basis of 

 sound economy of motives for the individual and 

 group activities of the participants. Which busi- 

 nesses are best undertaken by a state or a muni- 

 cipality, which are best left to private enterprise, 

 which private businesses require state control, and 

 the nature of such control ; what are the relations 

 between landowner and occupier, employer and 

 labourer, undertaker and investor, retailer and con- 

 sumer, and how the product can be best appor- 

 tioned in different sorts of business so as to evoke 

 and maintain the best co-operation of productive 

 effort ? how the volume of production can be 

 kept full, regular, and progressive by securing 

 these same qualities for the volume of consump- 

 tion ; such are some of the questions which await 

 the reformation of an economic science based on 

 a simultaneous and related study of the physical 

 and psychical bases of industry. 



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