lose sight of the aim of production—the satisfaction of needs.
If the most imperious needs of man remain unsatisfied, what must he do to increase the productivity of his work? And is there no other cause? Might it not be that production, having lost sight of the needs of man, has strayed in an absolutely wrong direction, and that its organization is at fault? And as we can prove that such is the case, let us see how to reorganize production so as to really satisfy all needs.
This seems to us the only right way of facing things. The only way that would allow of Political Economy becoming a science—the Science of Social Physiology.
It is evident that when this science will treat of production, as it is at present carried on by civilized nations, by Hindoo communes, or by savages, it will hardly state facts otherwise than the economists state them now ; that is to say, as a simple descriptive chapter, analogous to descriptive chapters of Zoology and Botany. But if this chapter were written to throw light on the economy of energy, necessary to satisfy human needs, the chapter would gain in precision, as well as in descriptive value. It would clearly prove the frightful waste of human energy under the present system, and would admit, as we do, that as long as this system exists, the needs of humanity will never be satisfied.
The point of view, we see, would be entirely
