132 ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES

we have to take habits of spending as they are, and not to
seek justification for a low level of wages in any reflection
as to the best conceivable way of spending the wages, and
their adequacy to provide necessaries of life, and something
over, if spent with ideal wisdom.
The prevalence of a wage-level below the equivalence
of existing standards of living will, then, result either in a
reduced supply of labourers or in the acceptance of a lower
standard of living. In so far as the latter results, quite
apart from the probable influence on the efficiency of labour
when expenditure on its maintenance, and on its training,
is reduced, the influence of the competition of growing
numbers in an already over-supplied field must be considered.
Increase of numbers employed tends, as we have seen, as
a rule, to reduction in the marginal productivity of labour,
and thus a further reason for a lowering of the demandprice
 is seen.
We turn now to consider the results of a wage-rate above
the equivalence of the standard of living. The preceding
discussion will enable a brief statement to suffice. The more
ample means are likely to lead to some increase in labour
supplies, for reasons sufficiently discussed above in connection
with the reverse process. Some part of the additional means
may be used to enlarge the consumption of commodities,
raising the standard of living if the enlargement be continued
long enough to develop a corresponding habit of life, What
was before stated, in regard to the cumulative effects of
reductions of wages, may be said, in part, of the opposite
tendency of increased earnings. Greater earnings may lead
to the development of increased earning capacity, which may
form the foundation for a fresh increase of earnings. Some
stress may profitably be laid on a point mentioned in
passing in the preceding discussion, and directly related to
this. The increased efficiency may be seen, not in the
actual earner of the relatively high wages, but in his children,
who secure better conditions of life and better training.
The class may advance even though the adult individuals
in it at any instant do not.
In so far as the relatively high earnings lead to a more