We Might As Well Reasonably Dispute Whether

It Is Common To Distinguish Necessaries, Comforts, And Luxuries; The First Class Including All Things Required To Meet Wants Which Must Be Satisfied, While The Latter Consist Of Things That Meet Wants Of A Less Urgent Character.

Every Short Statement About Economics Is Misleading (with The Possible Exception Of My Present One).

And Very Often The Influence Exerted On A Person's Character By The Amount Of His Income Is Hardly Less, If It Is Less, Than That Exerted By The Way In Which It Is Earned.

Civilized Countries Generally Adopt Gold Or Silver Or Both As Money.

I Admit That These Terms And The Diagrams Connected With Them Repel Some Readers, And Fill Others With The Vain Imagination That They Have Mastered Difficult Economics Problems, When Really They Have Done Little More Than Learn The Language In Which Parts Of Those Problems Can Be Expressed, And The Machinery By Which They Can Be Handled. When The Actual Conditions Of Particular Problems Have Not Been Studied, Such Knowledge Is Little Better Than A Derrick For Sinking Oil-wells Erected Where There Are No Oil-bearing Strata.