The nature of capital and income

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 102659555X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-82920

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Fisher, Irving http://d-nb.info/gnd/118533541

Title:: The nature of capital and income

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: The Macmillan Company

Year of publication:: 1923

Scope:: XXI, 427 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2019

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Introduction. Fundamental concepts

Collection:: Economics Books

44 NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME [Caar. II satisfactions from those goods are held. But the two are none the less distinct. It is with utility or desirability that we are concerned in this chapter. § 4 The desirability of any particular goods may relate to the whole or to any part of the group of goods. The de- sirability of the entire group is called the total desirability; the desirability of one unit more Or less of the group is called the marginal desirability. In economic science we have to do more with marginal than with total desirability, and it is important that the concept of marginal desir- ability should be thoroughly understood. That marginal desirability is the desirability of one unit, more or less, may be illustrated as follows: If a person airs, their marginal desirability is the differ- the desirability of having ten f having nine chairs; that is, it is the desirability sacrificed by having one chair less. Or, what is almost the same thing, the marginal desirability of the group of ten chairs is the desirability of one chair more, — the difference in desirability between eleven chairs and ten. Whether the marginal desirability is taken as referring to one unit more or to one unit less is usually of so little importance as not to require separate designations to distinguish them, and in case the commodity is one which admits of indefinite subdivision, as flour, wheat, coal, etc., the two coalesce as the size of the increment is reduced in- definitely.! This fact is usually expressed by saying that the marginal desirability of the chairs is the desirability of “the tenth’ chair. But though this mode of statement is correct, it is not intended to convey the idea that any par- ticular chair is the “tenth” chair. The group of goods the marginal desirability of which is under consideration may be any specified group of goods 1 For a mathematical treatment see Appendix to Chap. III, § 1. possesses ten ch ence, in his mind, between chairs and the desirability o

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