Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/256

244 H. STANLEY JEVONS consumption of the necessaries of life, absolnte and con- ven?ional, ?o such .?n extent as to impair ?l?e efficiency ot ?he people as woikers. The very great variation o! wants as between different persons makes it., oi course, impossible to arrive at ?ny .1)recise me?snre or e?en a really precise deftnit. ion of taxable Calmcity. Many persons, for example, will e?'en rednee ti?eir consnmption of tl?e necessaries of life below what is reqnisite for efficiency rather than entirely forego l?xnries; and again, a. very great difference exists between differen? p?ple as to the degree ot? efficiency obtainable by distt'ibuting the exl?endih?re of their ?vailable i.come on necessaries. The income which wonld serve te keep one family fnlly efficient may be insnffiien? for another family o! eqnal size, simply owing to the nnwise distrib. tion of ?xpenditure m?de by the latter. In economic ideas of this class it is necessary to deal with average resnit. s, taldng the hnman l?eings'ot the commnnity in the mass. By doing this we are really t?king short cnt. s in tl?e analysis of the effects of legal me?snres npo. the l)eople, and it must not be forgotten that a complete ?nalysis will demand an enqniry into the hateits of varions classes of individnals. For my prese. t pnrpose, l?owever, it is snfficient to deal with broad general averages, and to 'give o?ly an occasional or inciden?.al indication of effects nl)o. the different classes of the popnl?tion. A practicable capacity of any ?nethod of popnlatio. estimating the may lm songht. by some taxable fnr?her analysis of social income. The people may be regarded as di?ided into two classes: (1) Government servants of the civil and military services whose salaries are paid out of the taxes and laud revenue and tenths received. by Governmen? (to whom the term Govern- ment ser?nts will be confined here); ('2) the t?.st ol the population, including all Governmen? employees in