The Principles of Economics, with Applications to Practical ProblemsFetter, Frank A. (Frank Albert)
General
The Principles of Economics, with Applications to Practical Problems
Fetter, Frank A. (Frank Albert)
Economics
[Sidenote: Money borrowed to buy indirect agents]
2. _Interest on indirect agents is paid as a more or less indirect means
of securing gratification._ This can be clearly seen when durable agents
are hired that produce gratification directly. A carriage bought with
borrowed capital and used for the pleasure of the borrower is expected
to afford a utility greater than that to be gotten by the amount of the
interest in any other way. A spade bought with borrowed capital and used
to cultivate the owner's garden is expected to add products of greater
value than the interest.
But how is it in case the agent is used to gratify persons other than
the owner? The music-teacher who buys a piano on credit expects to
increase his earnings by a sum greater than the interest he has to pay.
If the addition to his earnings exceeds the interest charge, it is
because he has found a use for the borrowed capital greater than that on
the basis of which it was capitalized in the market. The amount of the
interest is secured through the pleasures and services the piano affords
to the patrons of the teacher. In the most complex cases of the
borrowing and use of indirect agents, there is ultimately this same
basis for the interest: enjoyment afforded by the use of capital in the
particular period. To the borrower, what the capital makes possible is
an addition to his income as great as, or greater than, the prevailing
interest. Most loans in our society are now of this sort. Money is
borrowed to invest in business, to get better machinery or a larger
stock; with this capital is secured a better or larger product, and the
product finally being sold at a profit, the business man is at a point
where he can satisfy his wants without encroaching on his capital.
Logically, therefore, the consumer of the product pays the interest in
the price, and the final consumer's enjoyment must be deemed the logical
source of the money interest. The borrower's motive for paying interest
on these indirect goods evidently is his hope of profit through
realizing a greater money rent than he has contracted to pay for their
use.
[Sidenote: The special case of money borrowed to pay debts]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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