Moreover, labor is applied according to expectation-valua tions (a present valuation of the future desirability), and these expectations may be mistaken, being either too large or too small. Some undertakings turn out well, some ill. The weather may be more or less favorable, the insect pest be especially troublesome, while many other turns of good luck or bad luck may give results far out of line with the expecta tion-valuations which guided the application of labor. There fore, the products have value not because a certain quantity of labor has been put into them, but rather a certain kind and duration of labor has been put into them because of the expectation that the products will have a certain value.
The play-element and the pleasure-in-work-element likewise enter into the valuation of material products, by increasing the supply of some as compared with others. If Crusoe liked caring for animals better than he liked to dig and plant, he would spend more time with his flocks and less time in his garden than if he liked both kinds of work equally well. He would more or less unconsciously choose his work differently than if he were merely weighing meat against vegetables as kinds of food. He is choosing psychic income rather than mere physical objects, and therefore the value of the objects is still further out of line with the time-amounts of labor put upon the material goods.
In view Of these facts it is clear that the values of products of equal periods of one's own labor (i.e., the part attributable to labor) have very unequal values to the isolated laborer.
§ 5. Rewards and sacrifices incident to occupations. Even those men who are equally fitted for several occupations have many motives besides the material result to choose one calling rather than another. Many of these motives result from differences in purely personal qualities of temperament and habit (we are not considering now differences in ability). One man enjoys being out-of-doors or likes physical exercise, another prefers a sedentary occupation, one delights in es thetic surroundings, another prefers to work with machinery more than do most other men. (See above, section 4, on Crusoe's choice of the work he liked.) But besides these dif ferences from man to man there are differences inherent in the occupations, which make them more or less attractive to most men apart from the evident labor income that they yield. The material products obtained from labor (or the wages received, see next chapter) are far from representing the net total of desirability of that occupation as a whole.
If now there are two or more occupations that are equally open to men of a certain grade of ability, but that are unequal in attractiveness, the more attractive will be chosen by more men. Therefore in that occupation the supply of labor will
be greater, the services more abundant, and the value attrib utable to the labor must be less than in the other occupation. Thus it often happens that material labor-incomes evidently are unequal in two or more trades calling for the same natural ability ; or again two laborers of very unequal ability are get ting equal material labor-incomes—indeed the higher income may even go to the less capable man.
A little study of actual conditions usually suffices to clear away our first impression of irrationality in such cases. "Man does not live by bread alone," neither does one choose his work in life with regard solely to material rewards. The total attractiveness of occupations (as judged by the laborer) depends in part on certain elements of psychic income, plus or minus, on certain costs or deductions which must be taken into account in one trade more than another, and on certain long-time or ultimate advantages or disadvantages attached to the pursuit of particular occupations.
§ 6. Psychic factors in labor-incomes. (a) Occupations differ in strenuousness, or degree of exertion required, some calling for the output of muscular energy to the point of exhaustion, or requiring long hours (mills with twelve-hour shifts), or night work. For the same reward most men would prefer day work, short hours, and only moderate exertion. (b) Occupations differ in agreeableness. Cleanliness of store, office, or shop, permitting the wearing of clean clothes is valued highly by some men and still more by young women, who therefore (among other reasons) are ready to work at clerical occupations for much lower wages than they could get in mechanical trades or in domestic service. Noise, dust, foul smells, darkness, and lack of ventilation are all things that are avoided by most workers so far as there is any op portunity to choose between these and other conditions with out too great a sacrifice of other advantages. Good physical surroundings of rural life make many salaried men content with much smaller incomes than they could get in the city, whereas some laborers cannot be tempted to the country by high wages away from what they deem the greater charms of crowded city streets, the movies, and an occasional glimpse of Coney Island. Congenial companionship is to many natures the greatest need, which outweighs almost any material advan tage. The moral conditions in the place of work must accord with one's standards if the work is not to be distasteful. Like wise the suffering imposed by sickness and accidents reduces the agreeableness of an occupation.