Editor. [p425]
XVII.
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SERVICES.
Services are exchanged for services.
The equivalence of services results from voluntary exchange, and the free bargaining and discussion which precede it.
In other words, each service rendered to society is worth as much as any other service of which it constitutes the equivalent, provided supply and demand are in all respects perfectly free.
It is in vain to carp and refine upon it; it is impossible to conceive the idea of value without associating with it the idea of liberty.
When the equivalence of services is not impaired by violence, restriction, or fraud, we may pronounce that justice prevails.
I do not mean to say that the human race will then have reached the extreme limit of improvement, for liberty does not exclude the errors of individual appreciations—man is frequently the dupe of his judgments and passions, nor are his desires always arranged in the most rational order. We have seen that the value of a service may be appreciated without there being any reasonable proportion between its value and its utility; and this arises from our giving certain desires precedence over others It is the progress of intelligence, of good sense, and of manners, which establishes this fair and just proportion by putting each service, if I may so express myself, in its right moral place. A frivolous object, a puerile show, an immoral pleasure, may have much value in one country, and may be despised or repudiated in another. The equivalence of services, then, is a different thing from a just appreciation of their utility. But still, as regards this, it is liberty and the sense of responsibility which correct and improve our tastes, our desires, our satisfactions, and our appreciations.