74

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

prompts  a  person  to  produce  except  the  desire  to  consume
what  is  produced  or  its  equivalent.  “  Each  may  not  want
more  of  what  he  himself  produces,  but  each  wants  moie
of  what  some  other  produces,  and  by  producing  what
the  other  wants,  hopes  to  obtain  what  the  other  produces.
There  will  always  be  consumption  for  everything  which
can  be  produced,  until  the  wants  of  all  who  possess  the
means  of  producing  are  completely  satisfied  and  the
production  will  not  increase  any  further.”  *  Now  though
it  must  be  allowed  that  a  desire  to  consume  is  in  general
the  motive  force  behind  production,  it  does  not  operate
so  closely  and  so  generally  as  to  preclude  the  waste  of
over-production.  A  great  many  persons  in  whose  hands
rests  the  control  of  industry  are  not  regulated  in  the
quantity  of  production  which  they  set  on  foot  by  the
quantity  of  consumption  which  they  desire,  nor  indeed
does  the  desire  to  consume  form  the  whole  or  the  chief
part  of  their  conscious  motive  in  their  work  of  production.
§  /j.  Does  all  “  Saving”  Give  Increased
Employment?
Mill  assumes  that  all  who  own  the  power  to  consume  want
to  consume  all  they  can  and  to  do  so  without  delay.
Now,  a  large  part  of  the  power  to  consume  is  in  the
hands  of  those  who  have  not  the  desire  to  consume.  What,
then,  do  these  men  desire  to  do?  They  desire  to  save.
But  saving,  if  we  look  behind  the  operation  of  putting
money  in  a  bank,  means  paying  labour  to  set  up  plant,
machinery,  and  other  material  forms  of  capital.  But  does
not  this  give  as  much  employment  to  capital  and  labour
as  the  same  power  used  to  demand  consumables?  Quite
*  J.  S.  Mül»  “Unsettled  Questions,”  p.  49.