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The Lesson Restated 179the reformer, social speculator, and philanthropist, and Ihope to show you before I get through that he deservesyour notice both for his character and for the many burdenswhich are laid upon him.It is a historic irony that when this phrase, the Forgotten Man, wasrevived in the 1930s, it was applied, not to C, but to X; and C, who wasthen being asked to support still more X’s, was more completely forgottenthan ever. It is C, the Forgotten Man, who is always called uponto stanch the politician’s bleeding heart by paying for his vicarious generosity.4Our study of our lesson would not be complete if, before we tookleave of it, we neglected to observe that the fundamental fallacy withwhich we have been concerned arises not accidentally but systematically.It is an almost inevitable result, in fact, of the division of labor.In a primitive community, or among pioneers, before the divisionof labor has arisen, a man works solely for himself or his immediatefamily. What he consumes is identical with what he produces. There isalways a direct and immediate connection between his output and hissatisfactions.But when an elaborate and minute division of labor has set in, thisdirect and immediate connection ceases to exist. I do not make all thethings I consume but, perhaps, only one of them. With the income Iderive from making this one commodity, or rendering this one service,I buy all the rest. I wish the price of everything I buy to be low, but itis in my interest for the price of the commodity or services that I haveto sell to be high. Therefore, though I wish to see abundance in everythingelse, it is in my interest for scarcity to exist in the very thing thatit is my business to supply. The greater the scarcity, compared to everythingelse, in this one thing that I supply, the higher will be the rewardthat I can get for my efforts.