224 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
wanted and more has to be produced, and 
because, were some labour left unoccupied 
nevertheless, this labour would be needed 
to produce other things (including leisure) 
which people had not been in a position to buy 
when they had been forced to pay so much for 
the thing that was afterwards cheapened. 
We may therefore conclude that, in conse 
quence of the introduction of machinery, in 
the long run as much labour will be wanted 
as before, and will even be wanted more 
intensively (as will be argued later), despite 
the fact that some labour may occasionally 
lose work for a time and possibly suffer 
permanently through having been narrowly 
specialised to a task which machinery assumes. 
The impossibility of there ever being insuffi 
cient work for a community normally becomes 
evident when we bear in mind that the demand 
for labour is simply a reflection of the com 
munity’s demand for things which may be 
regarded as practically insatiable. So Mr. 
Midshipman Easy was uttering an outrageous 
fallacy when he gave expression in this way to 
the wisdom which he is supposed to have 
learnt in the Navy :—“ The luxury, the 
pampered state, the idleness—if you please, 
the wickedness—of the rich, all contribute to 
the support, the comfort, and employment of