Generalization and Economic Standards 3 



allowance must be made for lapse of time, and there is no basis 

 for computing such allowance.' 



The marginal disutility standard suffers from precisely sim- 

 ilar weakness: change the scale of effective wants, and the 

 marginal disutilities are no longer equal. After all, even if 

 we succeed in finding a standard of value that will be applica- 

 ble in the comparison of different periods, no legitimate con- 

 clusion will follow, that such comparison, if practically applied, 

 will result in justice. The questions of justice and of value 

 are, therefore, regarded as separate. The conclusion is that no 

 theory of deferred payments is possible, which does not pro- 

 ceed from practical considerations as to what class in the com- 

 munity should be favored; for every change in the standard 

 must injure some and benefit others. 



The stimulating criticism above briefly outlined does not 

 attack directly the logical attitude of general reasoning. It 

 rather seeks to bring the usual method into discredit by mul- 

 tiplying difficulties in its practical application. If, for instance, 

 it is impossible to establish a scale of effective wants because 

 such a scale would probably change from day to day or from 

 hour to hour, what use is there in talking about such a scale? 

 The answer, of course, is that such a scale is an absolutely 

 necessary tool of the economist, for the acceptance of its truth 

 leads him to the discovery of principles of justice. Without 

 denying the possibility of such a scale as a concept, the reason- 

 ing in question seeks to impugn the utility of such concepts, 

 and every occasion is taken to point out the apparent conclu- 

 sion that if such reasoning is untenable in specie, it is still 

 less tenable in genere. The whole effect is a denial of social 

 interests as an economic concept, for if it is impossible to reason 

 generally as to the standard of values it is also impossible to 



The present writer suggests that additioual argruinent is needed to disprove what 

 was thp maiu thesiw of Professor J. B. Clark's well known article. The Ultimate Standard 

 of V.iiiip (Yale Ueview, November, JSU2), that disutilities of all persons, at all times, are 

 •commensurable. 



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