INTRODUCTORY

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would be required to adapt supplies to the changed needs.
As the workers would be assigned to their work by the will
of the director, the supplies of commodities would depend
on that will rather than on the attractiveness of different
Occupations to those who followed them. Only in so far as
assigning a man to congenial labour affects his willingness
in work, and the giving of special rewards might stimulate
to exertion, would the question of who was assigned to
sach task, and what reward was assigned to each, affect the
amount of products available, since we might assume that
those who were most capable of doing any special work
would be assigned to that work by an intelligent director.
In the actual arrangements of modern societies, it is not
Quite easy to see that there is anything to correspond to the
control of such an intelligent directing individual or body of
persons, Each is left to choose for himself what he will do,
and in what form he will take his reward for his work. His
choice of occupations is not quite free; indeed, it is in most
cases quite limited ; yet, within the range of choice possible,
the individual makes his own selection, or has it made for
him by a parent or by some one exercising a kind of parental
authority. If the choice be a personal one, it will be induenced
 by the attractiveness of the work and surroundings
and by its remuneration. Thus the occupations which
féquire no special skill are those open to the largest
Qumbers, Those offering the greatest rewards to a given
grade of skill attract more than those offering smaller
rewards. The distribution of labour among various occu-Pations,
 therefore, follows lines roughly corresponding to
those which we might suppose chosen by an intelligent
director. The labour whose reward is greatest is that whose
result is most needed, for, as each is free to dispose of his
Income as he deems best, it may be assumed that he will
select those things which afford him the greatest satisfaction
i Proportion to what he must give for them. Here again
on gy o not absolutely free. The knowledge which
the — o what is available, is not unlimited. If
ter i some do not extend to the provision for
€ most elementary wants, the extent of