ir belief and practice, will
acquiesce in the proposition that the end we should aim to secure is
"the largest good to the greatest number." As we are discussing here
only economic questions, this means that the end to be sought is that
the largest number of people should have secured to them the greatest
possible amount of the necessaries and comforts of life; or, more
simply, that the total of human happiness to be derived from the world's
production of wealth should be the greatest possible. Now for our
present purpose we may assume that since all men desire wealth, the
greater its production, the greater will be the number of human desires
gratified. From this it follows that our social organization should be
such as to increase to the greatest possible degree the world's stock of
wealth.

There is no easier or safer way of studying questions of economics than
to consider the community as a unit, and see what is for the interest of
the people as a whole; what conduces most to the "common wealth"; and if
we do this, whenever the question concerns production alone, the task is
simple, because the interests of the people as a whole are judged in the
same way as the interests of a single person. Whatever tends to increase
the total amount of wealth in the world, therefore, benefits the
community as a whole; and whatever diminishes the supply is an injury.
All work of every sort which tends to aid in the economical production
of wealth and its transfer to the consumer is a benefit to the
community; and any thing which destroys wealth, lessens its production,
or hinders men from exerting themselves to produce it, is an economic
injury.

What, then, are we to say of the condition known as over-production? Is
it not a fact that some lines of industry are so overdone that the
production is far in excess of the demand, and is not this an evil
rather than a benefit? Do not periods of business depression occur when
all industries stagnate for want of a market for their goods? The true
answer to this question is: Over-production is not a fault of
_production_, but of _distribution_. It is true that, in special
industries, a surplus of production sometimes occurs, due to
over-stimulation, or too rapid growth; but over-production as commonly
spoken of, refers to a general state of trade, in which demand for all
sorts of goods seems to fall far below the market supply. But this lack
of demand is not due to lack of desire. The des