by
which talent could climb from the humblest origins to the callings
which then seemed the summit either of spiritual or of worldly
ambition.

This reference to "talent" makes it well to consider here a factor
which necessarily complicates, though it does not substantially
affect, the whole argument of the present chapter. There are
differences of natural ability, which no education or training can
obliterate, which it should rather be their business to excite. These
differences are associated to a great extent with differences of
occupation; they _should be_ so associated far more closely than in
fact they are. They are also associated with differences of
remuneration even within the same occupation; "what should be" here is
a question which we may excuse ourselves from discussing. The
principle which, however vague, is sufficient for our present purpose
is that the same _natural ability_ should command the same reward in
all occupations, subject to differences which should not exceed the
differences of educational cost and initial waiting they involve. We
cannot assert, as an economic law, that this is generally true in
fact. If ever it becomes true, it will be due not to
"_laissez-faire_," or "free competition," but to social arrangements,
which express a sense of what is right.

Sec.7. _The Apportionment of Labor among Occupations_. When we pass to
the apportionment of labor among different occupations in the same
social grade, the same principle as to "what should be" applies in a
simpler form. Equal natural ability should command an equal reward in
all occupations; assuming that differences in cost of training can be
ignored. The reward must, of course, be interpreted not in terms of
money only but of "real wages," with allowance for the varying
amenities of different tasks. Now it was here that the extreme
advocates of _laissez-faire_ made one of their cardinal mistakes. They
assumed that this ideal would be best secured by "perfect
competition." The employer would choose the worker who would come for
the lowest wage; the worker would choose the employer who would pay
him the highest wage; and so, by a process similar to the higgling of
a commodity market, the desirable uniform wage-level would become
established. But in fact the conditions of the labor market differ
greatly from those of a commodity market. People are ignorant, do not
look ahead, cannot afford to risk the loss of a job, however wretched,