LABOUR and CAPITAL

Money is not only a means of exchange but also a means of measuring the value of man's labour. In economic theory, "labour" is any work undertaking in return for a fixed payment. It is not therefore labour in the strict economic sense.

As a scientist, the economist is interested in measuring the services which people render to each other. Although he is aware of the services which people provide for no financial reward, he is not concerned with these services. He is interested essentially in services which are the measurable in terms of money payments of a fixed and/or regular nature. In the theory of economics, money is the standard by which the value of things is judged. This standard is not religious or subjective standard, but an objective and scientific one.

Human labour produces both goods and services. The activities of a farm-worker and a nurse are very different, but both are measurable in terms of payment received, labour in this sense is not concerned with distinctions of social class, but simply with the payment of wages in return for work. When we talk about "the national labour force", however, we are thinking of all those people who are available for work within the nation, i.e. the working population.

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