8. A woman cut the wool from a sheep's back, spun and wove it by old hand-methods, and within twenty-four hours wore the dress made of it. Is more or less time needed in production with the best machinery and processes?
9. Ricardo said that on account of the cheapness of food in America there was less temptation to employ machines than in England, where food was high. What is the fact about this temptation in America?
Note.—The older abstinence theory of interest is given by F. A. Walker, Political Economy, Secs. 87-93. A noteworthy advance was the able article, by T. N. Carver, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. VIII, p. 40 (1893), "The Place of Abstinence in the Theory of Interest." A number of writers have written (fallaciously, in our judgment) on the "fallacy of saving," arguing that the capital-market easily becomes glutted; the contrary view is well presented by Cassel, The Nature and Necessity of Interest (1903), pp. 96-157, in chapters on what he calls "The Demand for Waiting," and "The Supply of Waiting."
Chapter 20. Labor and Classes of Laborers
1. Is dancing labor? Is the dancing of a dancing-master labor? If he would rather dance than eat, is it labor?
2. Enumerate some kinds of labor necessary to produce bread.
3. "Washing of clothes is unproductive labor; therefore as little of it should be done as possible." Criticize the argument.
4. Would you say that differences in ability at manual trades are due to practice or to native talent? If to both, in what proportion?
5. Do sons usually follow the father's trade? Is it more or less common than formerly for them to do so?