The goods and services that constitute our national income are valued severally and collectively with a fair amount of accuracy in terms of money.For a gold standard, though by no means perfect for the work of monetary measurement, is stable and has a single definite meaning to all men. By means of it we can estimate the rates of growth or decline in our industry, as an aggregate or in its several departments, and the quantities of output and consumption of the various products. We can compare the growth of our national wealth with that of other nations.

First published in 1914 and reissued with a new introduction in 1992, Work and Wealth is a seminal vision of Hobson's liberal utopian ideals, which desired to demonstrate how economic and social reform could transform existing society into one in which the majority of the population, as opposed to a small elite, could find fulfillment.

Hobson attacked conventional economic wisdom which made a division between the cost of production and the utility derived from consumption. Far from being necesarily arduous, Hobson argued that work had the potential to bring about immense utility and enrichment. The qualitative, humanist work argues in favour of a new form of capitalism to minimise cost and maximise utility.

John Atkinson Hobson (6 July 1858-1 April 1940), was an English economist, social scientist and critic of imperialism, widely popular as a lecturer and writer.