Busnress entebpbisb
The outcome of this recital, then, is that wherever and in so far as business ends and methods dominate modem industry the relation between the usehdness of the work (for other purposes than] pecuniary gain) and the remuneration of it ia i remote and uncertain to such a degree that no attempt at formulating such a relation is worth \ while. This is eminently and obviously true of I the work and gains of busineas men, in whatever lines of business they are engaged. This follows as a necessary consequence of the nature of buainess management.
Work that is, on the whole, useless or detrimental to the community at large may be as gainful to the business man and to the workmen whom he employs as work that contributes substantially to the aggregate livelihood. This seems to be peculiarly true of the bolder flights of business enterprise. In so far as its results are not detrimental to human life at large, such unproductive work directed to securing an income may seem to be
prodnet ; bat there Is do cogest ground for saving that the wages in any depttitment of industry, under a busInesB r^me, are proportioned to the utility which the output has to any oue else than ths employer who sells it. When it la further taken Into account (hat the vendibility of the product In very many lines of production dapeoda cbieSy on the wastetulneae ot the goods (of. Theory of Ae LeUure Cta»i, ch. V.), the divei^ence between the umfulue«s ot the work and the wages paid for it seems nlde enough to throw the whole question o( as eciuivalence between work and pay out of theoretical conai deration. Ci. , however, Cl&ik, TIM JHatmnOtoito/ WtaUh, aq^astaUy cb. VIL and xxn.