Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/188

 gested is probably the basic economic phrase in a region of self-imposed order such as democracy.

If we are mentally ready to admit that economic value in any given area is freedom, and to admit that freedom is only measurable as modified by self-imposed order within that area, we must admit further that such value can only be measured in terms of its dominating limits by means of a unit expressing the reciprocal relationship of these limits and the scope of our self-elected order. Attainable freedom due to effort and order in the medium of matter, limited by population, area and time, constitutes our ultimate economic supply. Our ultimate demand is the desire for ever ampler freedom, which is also limited by population, area and time. Orderly flow is ensured; and we can immediately measure the value of any interior effort in terms of this flow.

To need and fail to obtain is an obvious limitation of freedom. To desire and fail to obtain is also a limitation, even if the object of our desire is a jewel or a picture. While the need and desire of such freedom may both appear to be abstractions, nevertheless these are essential components of the conventional demand of the economist. If sufficiently urgent they ensure effort.

We have, then, a definite flow which may be expressed in scientific terms; and if this is confined within the conducting system of orderly government in a given area we are justified in regarding this condition as unity, for purposes of measurement. We can assume an unfailing supply, always proportionate to population; and we can count upon an insistent demand also proportionate to population—a demand which we only faintly approximate in our individual dreams of decency, comfort and luxury. To subsequently determine specific values by the reactions arising from interior supply and demand, measured in terms of such an assumption of unity, is good engineering and is also half-digested economic theory, however ignored in practice. In conception it is no more abstract than the “value” stored up in a cubic foot of lead if raised by human effort ten feet from the earth and