INCOME AND CAPITAL

ner or the outer event of eating it, but you can find outdefinitely how much money that dinner cost you. In thesame way, you cannot measure your enjoyment at mov-ing picture theater, but you do know what you paid foryour ticket; you cannot measure exactly what yourhouse shelter is really worth to you, but you can tellhow much you pay for your rent, or what is a fairequivalent for your rent if you happen to live in yourown house. You cannot measure what it is worth to wearan evening suit, but you can find out what it costs tohire one, or a fair equivalent of its hire if, perchance, thesuit belongs to you. Deducing such equivalents is anaccountant’s job.

The total cost of living, in the sense of money pay-ments, is a negative item, being outgo rather than in-come ; but it is our best practical measure of the positiveitems of real income for which those payments are made.For from this total valuation of positive real income maybe subtracted the total valuation of the person’s laborpain during the same period, if we wish to compare alaborer’s income with that of a man who does no laborbut lives on his income from capital (other than him-self), a “rentier.”

Enjoyment income, real income, and the cost of livingare merely three different stages of income. All threerun closely parallel to each other, although they are notexactly synchronous in time. These discrepancies, as hasbeen intimated, are negligible as between real and en-joyment income. So also the time elapsing between thecost of living and the living is usually brief. There is alittle delay between the spending of money at the boxoffice and the seeing of the entertainment, or betweenpaying board or rent and making use of the food or hous-

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