The most conspicuous activities that we see going on in the community are usually those that have to do with earning a living or the production of wealth. [Footnote: The activities by which we earn a living are also the activities by which wealth is produced. It is important to understand that when we speak of "wealth" we do not necessarily mean GREAT wealth. A boy who has a fifty-cent knife, or a girl who has a twenty-five-cent purse, has wealth as truly as the man who owns a well-stocked farm. The difference is merely in kind and amount. Food, clothing, houses, books, tools, cattle, are all forms of wealth. ANY material thing, for which we are willing to work and make sacrifices because it satisfies our wants, is wealth. Earning a living is merely earning or producing wealth to satisfy our wants and those of others.] Indeed, some people become so absorbed in the business of earning a living that they seem to be LIVING TO EARN rather than EARNING TO LIVE. It does not do to forget that not EARNING, but LIVING, is the real end in view. Unless we know how to use what we earn to provide properly for all of our normal wants, the effort we spend in earning is very largely wasted.
Nevertheless, before we can enjoy a living it has to be earned, by ourselves or by someone else; and the activities by which it is earned occupy so important a place in our lives, are so closely dependent upon the community, have so much to do with our citizenship, and receive so much attention from government, that we must give them some consideration in this chapter and several chapters following.
IMPORTANCE OF VOCATIONAL LIFE
While young people are spending most of their time at school or at play, their fathers and other grown people are usually chiefly occupied in the business of making a living or "earning money."
[Footnote: Gold and silver and paper and wood are forms of wealth. Out of wood we make a yardstick or a peck measure with which TO MEASURE QUANTITIES of cloth or grain. In a similar manner, out of gold, silver, paper, and other materials, we make money, and for a similar reason, viz. to MEASURE THE VALUE of wealth. When we speak of a FIFTY-CENT KNIFE and a TWENTY-FIVE CENT PURSE, we measure the value of these articles. It would take thousands of DOLLARS to measure the value of a well-stocked farm.
When we say that a boy earns a dollar, or that a man earns $4.00 a day, we measure the value of his work or his service. If a man works for a farmer, he very likely receives his "board and lodging" in part payment for his services; he makes a direct exchange of his services for food and shelter. But he also probably receives in addition an amount of money, because with the money he can buy clothes and other things that the farmer cannot give. He takes the money and buys with it these other things that he needs to supply his wants. Thus money becomes something more than a measure of wealth or of services; it is also A MEANS OF EXCHANGING WEALTH OR SERVICES.
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 accumulate 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 class disclosed the fact that the girls of the class, 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?