Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/175

 points the way to the construction of a valid measure. It has already been shown that if we can eliminate arbitrary taxation and the equally arbitrary domination of gold, then control of area is control of economic value. Here is our comprehensive dominant factor; and the availability of our goods, the effectiveness of our services, the extent of our inventiveness, facilities and culture, as well as the scope of our order, are all reflected in the occupancy-value of our area. This, if the cost of order is placed scientifically, where it belongs, in proportion to population-density, is true economic rent and is our most vital gauge, for if capitalized in terms of a rational unit it gives us basic national value, or economic unity. The scientific significance of net occupancy-value rests upon the fact that it recognizes fully the domination of our three basic measurable factors, density, area and time, in a region of self-imposed order, or national equilibrium.

Having stated, very briefly, the case for contending that economic value is effective effort, or freedom, and that this is not only inversely proportionate to resistance but cannot possibly be measured except in terms of its dominant limits—density, area and time—it may also prove interesting to follow the matter further and attempt to show that full scientific sanction can be claimed for employing these three factors as the basis of a tangible measure of value which will remain relatively constant in any measurable (or national) field of value.

The first necessary consideration is that no measurable value of any nature, which is more or less than zero, can be expressed except in terms of its ultimate limits. Our practical scientific phraseology has been so abbreviated for use that it may be forgivable to expand it again to its original significance.

The length-value of a straight line is an expression of the distance intervening between its limits in terms of the circumference of the earth.

The area-value of a rectangular plane surface is not simply the product of two length values, as we have been hurriedly taught. It is a similar description of the relationship of two sets of limits.