tion]

_Advantage of Diversity of Wants._--One very marked effect of the
diversification of wants is to increase the aggregate utility of a
mass of commodity produced with a given expenditure of labor. Measure
the whole wealth available for consumption on the basis of the labor
that it takes to create it, and it will appear that it has more
utility and is worth more to society in consequence of this evolution
that is going on in the nature of the individual consumer. A given
amount of labor benefits most the men whose wants are of the most
varied character. If _A_, _B_, and _C_ are three commodities, and if
their several utilities decline, as successive units of them are given
to a consumer, along the curves descending from the letters _A_, _B_,
and _C_ of the diagram, it is clear that the man whose consumption is
confined to the commodity A gets less benefit from three units of
wealth than does the man who consumes _A_, _B_, and _C_. The utility
of the first unit of _A_ is measured by the vertical line from _A_ to
the line _DE_, that of the second by the line from _A'_ to _DE_, and
that of the third by the line from _A''_ to _DE_. The utility of the
first unit of _B_ is measured by the distance from _B_ to the line
_DE_ and exceeds that of the second unit of _A_ by the difference
between the lengths of those lines. In like manner the utility of _C_
exceeds that of the third unit of _A_ by the difference between the
length of the line descending from C and that of the one descending
from _A''_. The declining utility of the income of the man who
satisfies three wants is represented by the slowly descending curve
_ABC_, while the diminishing utility of the income of the man who
satisfies only one want declines along the sharply descending curve
_A_, _A'_, _A''_.[1]

[1] For studies of the effect of diversified wants, see S. N.
Patten, "Consumption of Wealth." It will be seen that account
must be taken first of the natural expansion of the want
which comes from an increase of productive power, and second
of the changes in the quality of the wants to be gratified,
which sometimes go ahead of any change in the productive
system and call for new kinds of commodities.

_Changes in Static Standards._--The grand resultant of all the changes
that are going on in the more highly civilized countries is a
continual rise, not only in actual wages but in the theoretical
standard of wages. The static or