Part 18 (1/2)

These are the two uses of money. Money has value only because of what it represents in wealth, and wealth is useful because it enables us to satisfy wants. These things are mentioned because it is quite important that we should never forget that ”money” and ”wealth” are worth working for only because of the ”living,” or life, that they help us to attain.]

Children are, as a rule, wholly dependent upon their parents for their living. But during their period of dependence they are gaining skill and experience, in school and otherwise, that will later enable them to earn their own living and that of other people who may, in turn, become dependent upon them.

As adult life approaches, there comes an increasing desire for independence of others, to have possessions, own property, or acc.u.mulate wealth. Our VOCATIONS, or occupations, by which we earn a livelihood, come to occupy a prominent place in our thought, and to a large extent control our activity. Doubtless most of those who read this chapter have begun to think more or less seriously about what they are going to do for a living. Some may be already doing so, in part, or helping to earn that of their families. Boys and girls who live on farms are especially likely to have a share in the work by which the family living is provided; but most boys and girls have more or less regularly ”earned money,” even if they have not considered it necessary for their living. An inquiry in a large, first-year high school cla.s.s disclosed the fact that the girls of the cla.s.s, quite as much as the boys, were thinking of their choice of vocation. More avenues are open to girls to-day than formerly by which to earn their living outside of the family; but even the management of a home is a business as truly as the management of a farm or factory, and is an exceedingly important factor in the earning of the family living.

What part, if any, do you have in helping to earn the family living?

What have you done during the past year to earn money (a) out of school hours on school days, (b) on Sat.u.r.days, (c) in vacation time? Tabulate the results for the entire cla.s.s.

What vocation would you like to follow for life? Why?

If you have not decided upon some one vocation, name several that seem attractive to you. Why are they attractive?

What do you know about the opportunities and the qualifications necessary for success in the vocations you have named? How may you proceed to find out more about them?

What vocations offer special opportunities for girls and women to- day? How do these opportunities compare with those when your mothers were girls?

Make a list of the occupations of the fathers (or other members of the families) of the members of your cla.s.s.

Make a list of as many occupations in your community (town or county) as you can think of.

DEPENDENCE OF THE PIONEER

Our dependence upon others for a living by no means ends with childhood. There is no such thing as an entirely ”self-made man,”

by which is meant a man who has been successful entirely by his own efforts. It is true that the primitive hunter and the pioneer farmer were independent of others to an unusual extent. But their living was a meager one, and they could not acc.u.mulate much wealth. The very land that a pioneer occupies, even though it is extensive and fertile, has little value as long as it is remote from centers of population.

Even if a pioneer laid claim to a large tract of land, he could produce little wealth from it in crops if he could get no help to cultivate it, or if he had no improved machinery (made by others); and whatever he produced, he and his family could eat but little of the product. He could feed some to his few animals, and he would save some for seed; but anything that he raised above what he could actually use would have no value unless he could get it to other people who wanted it. If he could not sell what he produced, neither could he buy from others what they produced to satisfy other wants than that for food. So the kind of living a person enjoys, and the amount of wealth he acc.u.mulates, depend largely upon other people, and upon the community in which he lives.

DEPENDENCE OF THE MODERN FARMER

Under present-day conditions, a farmer who raises wheat probably uses none of it himself. He sells his entire crop for the use of others, while to supply himself and his family with bread he goes to the store and buys flour that may have been milled in Minnesota from wheat raised by other farmers, perhaps in North Dakota or South Dakota. In exchange for his wheat he also gets clothing manufactured in New York or New England from cotton raised in Georgia or Texas, or from wool grown in Montana. He buys a wagon made in Indiana from lumber cut in the South and iron mined in Michigan and smelted in Ohio. Thus he earns his living by producing food for other people, while the things he uses in living are the product of labor expended by other people in the effort to earn THEIR living. We noticed in Chapter II how many people and occupations were concerned in producing a pair of shoes.

EARNING BY SERVICE

While the farmer or other worker may be interested primarily in providing for his own wants and those of his family, he can do this only by producing something or performing service for others; and while each worker may be most concerned about WHAT HE RECEIVES for his work, the community is most concerned about WHAT HE PRODUCES. Earning a living has two sides to it: rendering service to others and being paid for the service rendered. It is as if the community entered into a sort of agreement with the worker to the effect that it will provide him with a living in return for definite service to the community or for the product of his labor.

What we call ”business” is SELLING A SERVICE. It may be personal service, such as teaching, or prescribing medicine, or nursing, or giving legal advice, or cutting hair, or driving a team, or running an automobile. Or it may be purchasing, storing, retailing, and delivering things which have been produced perhaps many hundreds or thousands of miles away. Or it may be raising foodstuffs on the farm, or mining fuels and metals from the earth, or cutting timber from the forest. Or it may be manufacturing-- buying materials and converting them into products serviceable to others. Whatever it is, every man's business is also the community's business, and the community has a right to expect industry and honest, efficient work from every worker.

Discuss the occupations named in answer to the two questions on page 26, from the point of view of their service to the community.

To what extent is your father's business or occupation dependent upon the business or occupation of the fathers of other members of the cla.s.s?

Show how your father's business is also the community's business.

What is the price of land in your neighborhood? Consult your father or friends in regard to the increase or decrease in price in recent years and in regard to the reasons for it.

LIVING WITHOUT EARNING

There are exceptional cases where people RECEIVE a living without EARNING it. One cla.s.s of such people is represented by thieves, gamblers, swindlers, and persons engaged in occupations that are positively harmful to the community. Such people may be very skillful and they may work hard enough, but they take what others have earned without producing anything of value to the community.

Then there are those who are incapable of productive work because of physical defects, or through the feebleness of old age. It is the duty of every citizen to provide, as far as possible, during his productive years, for the ”rainy day” of misfortune or advancing age. For those who cannot do so, the community must provide.