matter of fact
each group or agent of production receives, not what it must receive,
but rather what it manages to secure in the higgling of the market.
Ignorance of the state of the market plays a part in distribution. A
sense of fairness plays a part, as when an employer pays wages higher
than are current because his business is prosperous. Anxiety plays a
part, as when the fear of unemployment leads a man to accept a wage
below that which he might have asked and secured if he had some money to
fall back upon.

Lastly, changes in distribution resulting from a change in the relative
plenty or scarcity of the various groups or agents of production may, in
turn, cause further changes in the actual state of plenty or scarcity;
or may bring about changes in any of the other forces which affect
distribution. For example, it is conceivable that an increase in men's
wages in certain industries (due, let us say, to an improvement in
productive methods) should be the cause of a withdrawal of a certain
amount of juvenile labor from employment in these industries. This
withdrawal might in turn lead to an increased demand in those industries
for adult labor, and so in turn affect the distributive situation. The
process of distribution is a process in which few changes can occur in
any direction, without these changes in their turn giving rise to
further changes.

8.--The foregoing exposition of the forces determining the share of the
product of industry that goes to the wage earners can be briefly
summarized. The process of distribution is carried out mainly by the
action of competition; it is marked by active and stubborn
self-assertion on the part of all groups which share in the product. One
of the most important and constant factors in the determination of the
outcome as regards wages is the relative plenty or scarcity of the
various groups or agents of production. For the contribution made by the
ordinary worker, _as a part of a productive organization_, to the total
of market values produced, is largely settled thereby. However, other
human qualities besides those which are ordinarily considered as to be
active in the competitive process figure in the distributive outcome.
Furthermore, changes in distribution, brought about by any other cause
may in turn modify the relative plenty or scarcity of the various groups
or agents of production, and thus result in further changes. And lastly,
since the distributive situation at