Calculations of production efficiency make sense only if they can be expressed in a single set of terms—dollars and cents. Jacobo grew up learning a simpler, more fundamental arithmetic—the arithmetic of completeness. Is all the land plowed that can be plowed? Sown? Harvested? Are the grain bins full? The hay barn? The root cellar? Are the livestock fat? One looks out over a field or a farm and takes its measure. Where the work is complete, it is seen to be so: the parts fit together in an intact whole. There is no acceptable alternative.
