which would bring a commodity of equal utility nearer to the cost level of the articles already in the standard would be a favorable condi tion to an increase in variety. A change in appetite affords a condition quite as favora ble, if it reduces the undue surplus on articles already consumed by a decrease of appetite, or if it increases the number of commodi ties available by the opposite process of bring ing the utility on a new commodity far above its cost. After the change in appetite it is found that some new article of food satisfies so keen a taste that its high cost is no longer an obstacle to its entering the standard. More common than either of these simplest processes is the more complex process of the formation of new complements by the sub stitution of positive for negative or neutral utilities, the elimination of discordant ele ments, changes in the imputation of utility. The standard is improved when that which gives pleasure is substituted for that which had been used from necessity, having cost as much, but having been incapable of afford ing any positive degree of enjoyment. Each hour's labor devoted to the production of the new commodity yields a greater return than before. There is now additional motive for undertaking the labor. The standard is higher, and income is correspondingly in creased.
Every stage of social progress is marked by the transformation of luxuries into neces saries. In a progressive society luxuries are those commodities which stand in the outer court about to enter the standard of Mention has already been made of the natural tendency to attribute most of the pleasure derived from a group of commodi ties to those elements last added to the con sumption. These are the elements that are vaguely termed luxuries. Unpleasant ciations cluster around the more primitive pleasures. The consumer is strongly inclined to satisfy his needs without resorting to the commodities which he once enjoyed, but now Luxuries are defined by Professor Patten as articles that the civilized man must have to keep disagreeable associations from destroying the utility of necessaries ; Dynamic Econom ics, p. 131.
detests because of the changes in himself. This desire to avoid disagreeable associations leads to a keener appreciation of the pleasure to be derived from a complement from which they are entirely absent. The new commodi ties are made to enter the standard with a high degree of utility imputed to them, be cause they enable the consumer to receive the full effect of pleasant impressions and to avoid the disagreeable associations if they exist. The new standard may have greater or less expense than the old. If it has less, there will be a direct motive to improve it still further. If the expense of the new
standard be greater than that of the old, the consumer will not throw out the new articles, but will strive to increase his productive power ; or, failing that, will, either, by limiting the size of his family or in some other way, set causes at work which will ultimately cause a complete readjustment of society to the new standard.
To recapitulate : If the economic order of consumption is such that a few articles are used practically to the exclusion of all others because of their low comparative cost, then a change in the economic order of consumption is an imper ative condition of any improvement. Until other things are as cheap as rice in India, as the potato in Ireland, as Indian-corn bread and bacon in some sections of our Southwestern States, the standard of diet in those places will be low. Let a number of articles have nearly the same degree of surplus over cost, and the first favorable condition is secured. If social changes then effect a decrease of the intenser appetites, the increase of variety is assured. The articles before consumed can no longer be taken in large quantities, and when productive power is increased or new economies introduced, the tendency will be to choose the new com modities which, by the modification of the eco nomic order of consumption, are brought within reach of the consumer. The standard of life includes those articles only which are brought above the margin of consumption by such changes as give them a surplus equal to the sur plus on those articles of food, shelter, and cloth ing which are ranked among the necessaries of life.
To the student who is unaccustomed to the technical terms of economic discussions, but is interested in the practical problems of consump tion and production, even such elementary ex planations as are contained in the foregoing paragraphs may seem to be too formal and theoretical for application to actual conditions. The doctrines that income is fixed by the stand ard of living, that increase in the variety of consumption is conditioned on a decrease of the intenser appetites, that the utility of a group is greater than the sum of the utilities of its mem bers, that progress is secured by the gradual substitution of new complements for the older and less harmonious complements, — doctrines which are deduced from the fundamental and sufficiently well-established facts revealed by in ductive study of human society, -- are yet too unfamiliar for them to seem concrete and real. They are, however, in close harmony, so far as their practical application is concerned, with those teachings which are instinctively recog nized as sound even when unfortified by eco nomic or philosophical reasoning.