Meaning of “Wages, profit, and rent, are the three original…”

Emerson attacks rigid consistency when it prevents people from revising judgment in the light of new thought.

Money facilitates exchange and payment but is distinguished from the materials, tools, and subsistence that directly enable productive work.

Smith distinguishes nominal money price from the labour and sacrifice required to acquire something, making cost broader than the number printed on a transaction.

Smith links practical success with habits of industry, prudence, and careful judgment, while treating that success as the characteristic external reward of those traits.

Smith acknowledges that disciplined habits can arise from self-interest while still being socially praised for the steadiness, care, and practical competence they develop.

Franklin rejects European fantasies of effortless prosperity in eighteenth-century North America, emphasizing that newcomers should expect productive labor rather than automatic wealth or patronage.