Chairman: We must either shut the society's gymnasium or raise every member's subscription. Member: The gymnasium stands empty on four mornings in the week. Let it open only in the evenings and on Sunday mornings, when it is full; that saves three-quarters of the attendant's wage, and the attendant's wage is what the gymnasium costs us. The member answers the chairman by

The chairman's argument works only if closure and a higher subscription exhaust the field; the member breaks it by naming a course that lies between them and costing it out. He does not dispute the chairman's figure for what the room costs — he accepts that the wage is the cost and proposes to cut it. He says nothing about what members would or would not pay, and he asks for a decision now rather than later.