PROBLEMS OF DISTRIBUTION 221 
value which a producer gets for his work 
(exclusive of the element of consumer’s 
surplus) and what he sacrifices in doing it. 
Let us take the case of a workman. What he 
sacrifices is the disutility or dissatisfaction 
involved in working, which we must remember 
to interpret as experience which would not 
be chosen for itself, but to avoid which, on the 
contrary, the workman would be prepared to 
pay something. What he gets is first his wage 
and secondly any satisfaction obtained by him 
from the work itself. And there is little work 
in the world which from minute to minute, day 
in and day out, never stirs the sense of enjoy 
ment. Generally speaking the beginning of 
the day’s work goes against the grain ; but 
soon our activities become pleasurable ; and 
they continue pleasurable until weariness 
again causes disutility to predominate. Now 
in a land where labour is not in slavery the 
marginal utility of the wage multiplied by its 
amount is practically certain to exceed the 
disutility involved in work. This excess 
with any positive utility got from the activity 
of working is analogous to consumer’s surplus 
and is called the workman’s producer’s surplus. 
It may also be defined as the net utility result 
ing from work, apart from consumer’s surplus, 
when the utility of the wage is taken into