§ 10. Desire-streams and income-streams. It is not enough, however, that we should have a supply of goods at a given time; we need an "income stream." Our desires are nearly all recurrent. Hunger, tho fully satisfied, returns again. One circus does not last the boy a lifetime. New clothing quickly becomes old. We weather one storm only to feel an equal need of shelter from the next. To meet this series of desires and wants we require a pretty regular flow of goods and services.
We may liken man's life to a journey in which the supplies of food and of other goods are got at the daily stations. If any one of these supplies fails, the traveler suffers the pangs of hunger, and if two or three supplies are at one point, they do not serve his needs so well as if distributed along the way. This almost unbroken inflow of certain kinds of goods is a necessity of existence. The savage dimly understands this need. Even the birds and the beasts adjust their lives to it by toil and by travel. The spring and autumn migrations to new feeding grounds are the attempts of the bird to secure this income. The ant, the bee, and the squirrel anticipate, and work to fill their storehouses against the days of need. Man has to take thought to provide the much more complex series of goods upon which his desires are directed.
§ 11. Goods of direct, present use. These goods are of many kinds, but we may give our first attention to the goods of present, direct use to secure psychic income. Such is food to the primitive man, a skin to wear over his shoulders, a club to defend himself against his enemies. Such, to-day, is the cup of coffee on the table, the fire on the hearth, the furniture, the house, the land used for playground, tennis court, park, the clothing we wear, and countless other objects in daily use.
Thus in every case that a desire is gratified, whether of child or of man, of poor or of rich, the relationship may be traced between psychic income and goods of direct use. Warmth is to be had by the use of clothing, shelter, and fire; light is given by the candle, the lamp, and the electric light. All around men are things just ready to serve the final use of yielding enjoyment, or just on the point of "ripening" or be coming fitted to serve this end. These goods of present, di rect use are the first and almost the only concern of the ani mal, of the child, or of the savage. To man in developed eco nomic conditions these goods are still the immediate objective conditions to the creation of his psychic income.
§ 12. Directness of use defined. Directness of use is that quality a good has of yielding to its possessor its ultimate eco nomic use (psychic income) without the physical intervention of any other agent (between itself and the user). Examples of goods having direct uses are food ready to eat, fuel to give warmth to the body, the candle to give light, a beautiful pic ture, a riding horse, clothing, ornaments, furniture, dwelling houses, general services of all kinds, such as the musician's song, the services of actor, teacher, lecturer, preacher, physi cian. When these uses and services produce psychic income directly (without the aid of any intervening agent), they are direct uses.' 2 The directness here considered must not be confused with immediate ness in time. Directness here refers to the number of steps or processes that separate the good from the final use to the owner. It is the quality which an object has when it gives the sensual stimulus which results in psychic income. Time-value is the special subject of Part IV.