We should have nothing to do, because we should be all-powerful, and our _fiat_ alone would satisfy at once our wants and our desires.
III.
EFFORT--RESULT.
We have seen that between our wants and their gratification many obstacles are interposed.

We conquer or weaken these by the employment of our faculties.

It may be said, in general terms, that industry is an effort followed by a result.
But by what do we measure our well-being?
By the _result_ of our effort, or by the _effort itself_?
There exists always a proportion between the effort employed and the result obtained.

Does progress consist in the relative increase of the second or of the first term of this proportion?
Both propositions have been sustained, and in political economy opinions are divided between them.
According to the first system, riches are the result of labor.

They increase in the same ratio as _the result does to the effort_.