It is simply that
the waste is so great that there is not a sufficient share for everyone
engaged, notwithstanding the fact that the product is usually sold at so
high a price as to restrict its fullest consumption.
Take some of the wastes. Take the wastes of power. The Mississippi
Valley is without coal. Through its centre pour many millions of
potential horsepower--the Mississippi River. But if the people by its
banks want power or heat they buy coal that has been hauled hundreds of
miles and consequently has to be sold at far above its worth as heat or
power. Or if they cannot afford to buy this expensive coal, they go out
and cut down trees, thereby depriving themselves of one of the great
conservers of water power. Until recently they never thought of the
power at hand which, at next to nothing beyond the initial cost, could
heat, light, cook, and work for the huge population which that valley is
destined to support.
The cure of poverty is not in personal economy but in better production.
The "thrift" and "economy" ideas have been overworked.
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