The Principles of Economics, with Applications to Practical Problems

CHAPTER 6. PSYCHIC INCOME

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1. Is it possible to compare the value of the portrait-painter's service with that of the gardener?

2. To call the teacher's work unproductive, and the ditch-digger's work productive was once usual, but is so no longer; give reasons for either view.

3. It is usual to call the use of a house for business purposes a productive use, but its use as a residence an unproductive one. What reasons are there for and against this?

4. Give a list of material agents that are yielding non-material uses.

5. Give examples of personal services that are most immediately expressed as gratifications.

NOTE.--The phrase "psychic income," used here for the first time, expresses a conception long neglected, but essential to the advancement of psychological economics. The idea has been recognized in the writings of Edwin Cannan, Irving Fisher, W. M. Daniels, and perhaps of late by others. It was discussed by the author in the _Quarterly Journal of Economics_, Vol. XV, pp. 19-30, especially pp. 25-26, in an article called "Recent Discussion of the Capital Concept" (November, 1900).