Social wealth is a broader term and includes all the weal bringing environment of the nation. It is more than the sum of concrete individual wealth (factories, farms, etc., of course all conflicting claims being canceled) ; it includes the valuable exchangeable things in governmental possession, parks, forests, public buildings, libraries, bridges, highways, and public owned wealth, etc., and also all the natural advantages of climate, rivers, harbors, lakes, and oceans. The better and more beautiful these advantages, the less may be the need of individual wealth ; one nation with natural waterways may be truly wealthier than another with canals costing millions of dollars and owned by corporations; and a nation with abun dant cheap lands of low price is more happily situated than one with high-priced lands that yield great private incomes to the owners.
§ 8. Welfare. Welfare, in an immediate or narrow sense, is the same as gratification of the moment ; in a broader and truer sense it is the abiding condition of well-being. We have here a distinction very much like that often made between pleasure and happiness. If only the present moment is thought of, welfare is the absence of pain, and the presence of pleasurable feeling; but if a longer period in a man's life or his entire lifetime is considered, it is seen that many things that afford a momentary gratification do not minister to his ultimate, or abiding, welfare. The difference is illustrated by the thoughtlessness and impulsiveness of a child or savage as contrasted with the more rational life of those with foresight and patience.
Now it is evident that a large part of the value of individual wealth rests on the basis of foolish and shortsighted choice. But whether tobacco or alcohol or morphine minister to the abiding welfare of the consumers is not the question in ex plaining the value of these things' Here again it is seen how poor an index the value of individual wealth is to the perma nent welfare of men and society.
In studying the question of social prosperity we must rise to the standpoint of the social philosopher and consider the more abiding effects of wealth. Desires may be developed and made rational, and the permanent prosperity of a community depends on this result. Any species of animals that continued regularly to enjoy that which weakens the health and strength would become extinct. Any society or individual that con tinues to seek its pleasures in ways that do not, on the aver age, minister to permanent welfare, sinks in the struggle of 4 See also ch. 19, note on value versus utility of labor.
life and gives way to those men and nations that have a sounder and healthier adjustment of choice and welfare. We touch here, therefore, on the edge of the great problems of morals, and while we must recognize the contrast that often exists in the life of any particular man between his "pleas ures" and his health and happiness, we see that there is a reason why, on the whole, and in the long run, these two can not remain far apart. The old proverbs, "Be virtuous and you will be happy," "Honesty is the best policy," and "Vir tue is its own reward," have a sound basis in the age-long experience of the world. Cynics or jesters may easily dis prove these truths in a multitude of particular cases.
§ 9. The paradox of value in practice. A necessary con dition of value is scarcity. The business incomes of individ uals depend on the price of the agents and uses they control. It appears in the paradox of value (Chapter 4, section 11) that up to a certain point the total value increases with the number of units offered in a market, and beyond that point it decreases. In the period of increasing total price (tho de clining unit price) any one who owned the whole supply would gain by abundance and his interest would be in harmony with the interests of the buyers of his goods; beyond that point he would gain by greater scarcity. Thus individual gain some times may lie in social want rather than in social wealth. Broadly speaking, so long as value is on the ascending curve and income grows with abundance of goods, the individual in terest is bound up with the social interest. So soon as value is on the descending curve and private income grows with social need, the individual interest is at conflict with the social interest, and a problem of social control is presented. Fortunately, in most cases the individual is concerned only with the ascending scale of total value and can increase his private income only by striving for abundance, increasing the number of units he has to offer. A social problem is pre sented wherever individuals or corporations control such a large proportion of the whole supply at a particular time and place that they are tempted to increase their private incomes by artificially enhancing scarcity.