Consequently, if it were not for the fact that pecuniary efficiency is on the whole incompatible with industrial efficiency, the selective action of all occupations would tend to the unmitigated dominance of the pecuniary temperament.

The result would be the installation of what has been known as the "economic man," as the normal and definitive type of human nature.

But the "economic man," whose only interest is the self-regarding one and whose only human trait is prudence is useless for the purposes of modern industry.
The modern industry requires an impersonal, non-invidious interest in the work in hand.

Without this the elaborate processes of industry would be impossible, and would, indeed, never have been conceived.

This interest in work differentiates the workman from the criminal on the one hand, and from the captain of industry on the other.