(b) Occupations differ in regularity of employment. The short-time rewards in the seasonal trades, such as bricklaying, mason-work, etc., are usually noticeably higher than in the steady occupations that call for the same kind of ability and preparation. But the more irregular the employment the greater the loss from being out of work, and the smaller is the total annual income as compared with the income earned by the hour, day, week, or month. Much of the difference in labor-incomes in such cases is nominal rather than real.
(c) The chance of success or failure in an occupation enters into the calculations of a beginner. The greater certainty of success in one case must be to some extent offset by higher rewards in the other. This element is of course supplemented or neutralized by other considerations; for example, the small chance of success in law is to some extent offset by oppor tunities in politics, business, and often in social affairs. In salaried positions the greater chance of success appears in the form of opportunities of promotion. Some less provident or less able to wait take the positions that give a living income from the first, but which lead nowhere, and others take the larger, but more distant income.
In all these cases there is an adjustment of rewards through the choice of occupations. If within the range of choice open to a group of individuals there is one occupation that is less attractive than others in all excepting the material reward (or the money wage) fewer will choose that, and more will choose the more attractive occupation ; the result must be a rise of the value of services in the one and a fall in the other, until an equilibrium of net advantages is attained, to those entering or free to choose between the various occupations.
§ 9. Rarity of ability limiting choice of occupations. But even if all these psychic factors be duly accounted for, it is still evident that some men obtain a larger income for their services than others do. This is true whether they con sume the results of their own labor, or sell them to others, or work for other men for a wage. Moreover, some labor having the highest value is the least strenuous and performed in the midst of the pleasantest surroundings, whereas most of the labor of the least value is the most arduous, disagreeable, and dangerous to health and to life. The laborers with low in comes thus have a motive to shift to more highly rewarded occupations. Why do they not do it ? The answer is that they do to the extent of their respective abilities, knowledge, strength of will, and opportunities (limited of course by habit and by valuation of psychic income). But the various labor
ers have limited abilities and can not change at will and, despite the unfavorable ratio, they may be compelled to con tinue at the same work.' Just as fields, plows, machinery for various purposes, grade off from the best to the poorest on the margin of use or already discarded, so men differ in their powers of labor. There are high value, low value, and no value men and services of Even were there everywhere entire political freedom, and no legal influence of caste or status hindered the mobility of labor, mobility still would be hindered by the inequality and the rarity of ability. Just as apples can not be changed to peaches or sheep to horses when there is a change in their value, so the unskilled workman can not be changed to a skilled workman quickly, if he ever 4 Recall the disparity of talents ch. 16, sec. 12.
Recognizing the variety and inequality of human talent, some economists have spoken of the "rent of ability" and of "producers' rent." It is true that the difference in the rewards of labor, like land-rent, reflects the difference in the quality of agents; but this expression (the rent of ability) is to be avoided. While possibly it is suggestive in studying some problems, it is at best only an analogy, and on the whole a misleading one, confusing the terminology of rent and wages and dimming the distinction between free workers and owned and exchangeable wealth. See note on various meanings of rent, at end of ch. 14.
can. The possibility of workers changing within any brief period to occupations necessitating different, not to say higher, training is very small indeed. The individual laborers are constantly trying to adjust themselves, to get into places where they can earn larger incomes. Some move, some emi grate, some seek practice and education. Especially the work ers between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five are at the time of life to choose the callings that promise to each the highest reward. Within limits an adjustment is possible, but these limits are not wide or not quickly shifted, and the incomes of particular laborers and groups of laborers continue to be very unequal in different occupations. Such changes of oc cupation as are made are far from enough to bring the values of the different services and their results to a common level.