Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/127

14] Even more curious is the fact that the beneficiaries of high prices are themselves indignant over the high prices charged by others. Employers who are getting high prices and high profits often object strenuously to raising wages and salaries. Farmers who are getting high prices protest vigorously against paying high prices.

There is a true story which illustrates this. A farmer inquired from the manufacturer the present price of a certain type of buggy such as he had bought once before. The price quoted seemed to him outrageously high and he accused the manufacturer of "profiteering," reminding him of what the former price of this buggy had been. The manufacturer, after looking up the record of the transaction, and discovering that the farmer had previously paid for such a buggy by a shipment of wheat, reckoned at the low prices then prevailing, replied: "If you will ship to me for the new buggy the same amount of wheat you shipped for your old one, I will gladly ship the buggy and in addition will ship you a piece of household furniture and a good kitchen stove!"

In short, everybody is eager to take advantage of rising prices, but feels aggrieved if anybody else snatches the advantage away. Thus the high cost of living becomes a veritable "apple of discord." If high prices have come to stay, of course the sooner all the adjustments are made the better. "Wages especially need to be raised, as do salaries, rents, and the rates of public service corporations. It will probably be less disturbing, on the whole, to level up the few such things than to level down the many other things.