Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/65

 BT OF EOONOMIO DEFELOPMENT  shalt proceed from the greatmr income to the lesssr from the whole to, s[eeessively smaller parts--by process of elimination. Firsfly, we must reeognise the ota means the what must be called ?sych gnom of s community,  which sum total enjoyment day by day of all persons in the community, enjoyment being as positive or negative according to whether reckoned it takes the form of happiness, pleasure or satisfaction on the one hand, or of pain or physical ailment or injury discomfort arising from or from mental or bodily effort, or No accurate possible- no because in any other way, on the other hand. measure of measure can of feeling true intensity psychic i,wms is even be conceived between one person and Yet proportional ohanges balance of feeling are adoption of the device of another is at present completely incommensurable. in the positive or negative conceivable, and by the an index number as we do for averaging prices, which are also incommensurable, we may arrive at the idea of a relative increase or decrease of the total enjoyment of life by the community per unit of time, that is to say, re of enjoyment It is this total psychic resultant life in a given community for ol psychic incom. We next come to what practical of all the activities of which I use the term is in some ways for purposes an even more important conception because it is approxhnaly measurable, namely grom, In'discussing the economics of a political unit such as Great Britain, France or the United States, this is often called atonal incores. It means the sum total of all individual incomes received by the the persons. composing the communit). * The incomes l Irving Fisher, Nature a (1 o! Io,ue, Chapter X. The whole book should be studiod /or s dear underandin of the various lnooms. s b Marsh&11; Elements of the Eoonomios of Industsry, d Ed.,. 1905: pp.