SECOND APPROXIMATION

and as such derive his satisfactions in any one or moreof several different ways, sensual, esthetic, intellectual,or spiritual. Or, he may also be an active producer, and,as such, perform work in any one or more of several dif-ferent ways, physical or mental. Even the skilled laborerwho is most specialized and restricted has many ways toturn. And each of these varieties includes numerous sub-varieties. If his work is physical, it may consist in any-thing from wielding a pick and shovel to the deftmanipulation of the instruments employed in the jewel-er’s art. If his work is mental, he may be a bookkeeper,clerk, superintendent, manager, director, lawyer, physi-cian, clergyman, editor, teacher, or scientist. Some ofthese options, of course, may be out of the question and,in each case, there will be only one best choice. Thatchoice is what is now under discussion.

In consequence of such a range of choice, any givenproductive instrument, or any given set of productiveinstruments, including human beings, may produce anyone of many different income streams. Men may work toproduce cheap frame houses or durable stone ones; toequip a city with trolleys, elevated, or under-groundrapid transit; to secure an income stream which shallconsist of the pleasures of the table, of the amusementsof the theatre, of the gratification of social vanities, orof endless combinations of these groups, as well as of allothers. Each individual must select one particular in-come stream out of a thousand possible income streamsdiffering in size, composition, time shape, and uncer-tainty; but, in this chapter, the element of uncertaintyis, as already stated, supposed absent, being reserved forthe third approximation (Chapter IX).

As in the first approximation, a perfect market is

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