This study of the ethical basis of public life asks and answers a host of questions: when is industriousness a vice; why do government-run businesses bog down in waste and inefficiency; and when is it ethical to deceive? It shows that human behaviour is governed by two distinct ethical systems - one has its basis in territory and the other in commerce. These two modes of survival each have their own totally separate and contradictory ethical systems. Conflicts occur when the precepts appropriate to territorial morality is imposed on commercial life. Other works by Jane Jacobs include The Death and Life of Great American Cities: The Economy of Cities, Cities and the Wealth of Nations and The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle Over Toronto.