Good
work, well managed, ought to result in high wages and low living costs.
If we attempt to regulate wages on living costs, we get nowhere. The
cost of living is a result and we cannot expect to keep a result
constant if we keep altering the factors which produce the result. When
we try to regulate wages according to the cost of living, we are
imitating a dog chasing his tail. And, anyhow, who is competent to say
just what kind of living we shall base the costs on? Let us broaden our
view and see what a wage is to the workmen--and what it ought to be.
The wage carries all the worker's obligations outside the shop; it
carries all that is necessary in the way of service and management
inside the shop. The day's productive work is the most valuable mine of
wealth that has ever been opened. Certainly it ought to bear not less
than all the worker's outside obligations. And certainly it ought to be
made to take care of the worker's sunset days when labour is no longer
possible to him--and should be no longer necessary. And if it is made to
do even these, industry will have to be adjusted to a schedule of
production, distribution, and reward, which will stop the leaks into the
pockets of men who do not assist in production.
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