244. Point out distinctly the connection between the money wages of laborers in the United States and the productiveness of the soil.
245. In the Eastern States iron-molders earn from fourteen to seventeen dollars a week; in California their wages run from twenty-one to twenty-seven dollars. Account for this variation.
Progress of Society.
246. What are the reasons for the change in the normal values of manufactured and of agricultural commodities, respectively, during the progress of society?
247. Wages and profits in different employments and neighborhoods are not uniformly proportional to the efforts of labor and abstinence of which they are the respective rewards. Classify the circumstances which prevent this correspondence, and show how far their effect is likely to be reduced (a) by general economical progress, and (b) by the extension of the division of labor.
248. What is the law of diminishing returns? Can you point out any connection between this law and the following phenomena?—
| (a.) Density of population. | |
|---|---|
| (b.) Rate of wages. | |
| (c.) Rate of profits in different countries. |
249. Sketch the influence on rents and profits of an increase of population and capital concurrently with a stationary state of the arts of production.
250. Is there reason to believe that Mr. Mill has underrated the powers possessed by man of extending the area of production and facilitating the market of food? If such a statement has been made, to what extent is his theory of population modified, and the risks he had indicated rendered distant?
251. Compare the effects on rent, profits, and wages, of a sudden improvement in the production (a) of food, (b) of some manufactured articles largely consumed by the working-classes.