Monday, December 09, 2024

We Can't Consume Our Way to Prosperity

Once upon a time, John Stuart Mill could write these words truthfully ("Of the Influence of Consumption on Production," 1844):

It is no longer supposed that you benefit the producer by taking his money, provided you give it to him again in exchange for his goods.

He was talking, of course, about government tax-transfer programs intended to stimulate employment by subsidizing consumption. We cannot say this today.

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