More on national income

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Kevin Carson on why increasing national income is not a proxy for increased liberty:

'But any number of things, good or bad, can cause an increase in national income. The monetization of the subsistence and barter economy, caused by expropriating the producing classes and coercing them into the labor market, can show up as an exponential increase in "national income." If somebody figures out how to suck air out of the atmosphere, bottle it up, and sell it back to workers as an alternative to suffocation, that'll probably kick the "national income" up a few notches. Not everything that increases "national income" is good (these people have heard of the broken window fallacy, right?).'

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Comments

  1. Kevin Carson4:24 PM

    Hey, thanks, Gene! I'll refrain from any classical allusions. ;)

    ReplyDelete

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