Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory, Critical and ConstructiveAnderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
General
Social Value: A Study in Economic Theory, Critical and Constructive
Anderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
Value
[171] Professor Clark seems to desire to exclude all phases of social life
except the "pure economic," from his static conception, as indicated by the
footnote which follows, taken from page 76 of his _Distribution of Wealth_:
"The statement made in the foregoing chapters that a static state excludes
true entrepreneurs' profits does not deny that a legal monopoly might
secure to an entrepreneur a profit that would be as permanent as the law
that should create it--and that, too, in a social condition which, at first
glance, might appear to be static. The agents, labor and capital, would be
prevented from moving into the favored industry, though economic forces, if
they had been left unhindered, would have caused them to move to it. This
condition, however, is not a true static state, as it has here been
defined. Such a genuine static state has been likened to that of a body of
tranquil water, which is held motionless solely by an equilibrium of
forces. It is not frozen into fixity; but as each particle is impelled in
all directions by the same amounts of force, it retains a fixed position.
There is a _perfect fluidity, but no flow_; and in like manner the
industrial groups are in a truly static state when the industrial agents,
labor and capital, show _a perfect mobility, but no motion_. A legal
monopoly destroys at a certain point this mobility [so would a law
forbidding the manufacture of, say, opium or liquor, or any law or moral
force that prevents the individual's using his labor and capital in the
manner most advantageous to himself regardless of public consequences], and
is to be treated as an element of obstruction or of friction that is so
powerful as not merely to retard a movement that an economic force, if
unhindered, would cause, but to prevent the movement altogether." This
would seem to leave economic forces working _in vacuo_ in Professor Clark's
static state--if "unhindered" is to be taken literally. It is probably a
juster interpretation, however, to hold that Professor Clark has in mind a
constant legal situation, in which absolutely free competition is assured
by law. But even in his scheme for an economic dynamics, there is no place
for legal or ethical changes. There are five general sets of dynamic
changes which Professor Clark mentions, whose operation is to constitute
the subject matter of economic dynamics. They are (_Essentials_, p. 131,
and _Distribution_, pp. 56 _et seq._): (1) population increases; (2)
capital increases; (3) methods of production change; (4) new modes of
organizing industry come into vogue; (5) the wants of men change and
multiply. These five categories are all, primarily, at least, economic in
character. While legal and ethical changes would doubtless influence them,
they certainly cannot comprehend the full influence of these legal and
ethical changes, especially those affecting the ranking of men, and the
distribution of wealth. There seems to be a marked difference between
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account