Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/80

 "“Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with the span and comprehended the dust of earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?”"

All matter is raw-material, and all matter, to the uttermost ether, or the furthest cooling star, is, almost without doubt, a varying phase of energy in swaying equilibrium, so that it becomes an aspect of our environment, and from this point of view, or any other, cannot be measured.

Ground is land-area, constant and measurable, a true primary factor.

Time is also constant and measurable, and therefore a true primary factor.

Tools are a useful part of capital and capital is obviously a product of energy—not a primary factor—as Gide himself agrees.

Environment is space and matter, both of them quite important conceptions, but clearly not subject to concrete measurement.

A rearrangement of these factors put forward by Gide may now be made as follows:
 * The field of action—
 * Environment and Raw-Material, or space and matter.
 * The factors of action—
 * Labor, Ground and Time.
 * The Product—
 * Freedom or Value (of which so-called Capital is one important but much over-emphasized item).

Thus Gide gives us clear-sightedly the three measurable factors we need, but beclouds his dawning logic by throwing in too generously, first, the environment, which is not susceptible of measurement, and, second, a partial product which is not worth measuring; for if economics is a science, its essentials existed before its consequences.