For the satisfaction of the needs of the body, and the nourishment of the physical life, four things are required : food, clothing, fuel, and shelter. By labour, and by labour alone, can these necessary things be obtained, and that labour must be applied to the earth, created by God and placed in subjection to the dominion of man. While ever the populations of the earth are in need of food, clothing, fuel and shelter, labour engaged on the production and distribution of these primary goods is fulfilling an economic purpose and is not wasteful.

Economic waste is either of a positive character, taking place when labour is organized for the destruction of human life and the necessities of human life; or it is a negative thing, seen when labour is engaged at tasks that do not minister to the health of man or is left totally unemployed.

Of positive waste the most obvious examples are war and the whole business of armaments and the manufacture of chemical agencies for the taking of life in war. (Yet even in the case of war it may be that the very real waste of labour is sometimes the only apparent means of stopping a greater and more disastrous waste. As the advance of a raging fire must be checked, and can only be checked by clearing an area —in itself a wasteful proceeding—to the end that the fire shall die down for lack of further fuel; as the progress of an epidemic may require the pulling down of dwelling-houses lest the ravages of plague and pestilence extend unhindered;