Page:Neurath O. (1942) International Planning for Freedom.pdf/3

424 factories of the same type and size. The output of the one is greater per man-hour than that of the other, but it might happen that the one factory uses more technicians and skilled workers than the other. We cannot express the working hours of a technician or skilled worker as multiples of the working hours of unskilled workers. We know that in our times the former get higher wages, but that does not settle the question whether these higher wages are proportional to something that all these working hours have in common, or not. In a competitive society the difference depends essentially upon the market but in a society based on planning the difference is a conventional one; it could e.g. be decided by the community that the more pleasant the work the lower the wages should be, to equalize 'happiness conditions'.

Let us assume the types of workmen employed are identical, but in the former factory there are more accidents per man-hour, than in the latter. Even people who think they can solve the former difficulty will admit that they have no measure for comparing the plus of accidents with the plus of steel production.

And if the number of accidents were the same, the question would still remain, whether in the former factory, the workmen are being more bullied and have to bear more unpleasant piece work than in the latter. The traditional 'money reckoning' and its derivates do not account in the balance sheets for accidents nor for bullying. The figures of the accidents perhaps appear in the country's statistical abstracts, the figures of being bullied do not appear at all.

What can be done by social engineers? They are in a position to draw a picture of the various features of both factories. The one factory may present a long row of steel, a long row of accidents, dark grey might represent much bullying, and so on; the second 'silhouette' might perhaps be composed of a shorter row of steel, a shorter row of accidents and a lighter grey may indicate less bullying. In a similar way we may depict 'happiness conditions' of various professions including food, shelter, working hours, accidents, bullying, civil liberty, and many more. We see at a glance that e.g. the usual standard-of-living research, though very useful, does not tell the whole story of human happiness in which social engineers are interested.

These 'silhouettes' of 'happiness conditions' are of particular use when we want to compare the efficiency in happiness of the social patterns o