tailieunhanh - economics in one lesson the shortest and surest way to understand basic economics phần 10

và sự giàu có và tiền bạc, trong ngắn hạn, trong ngôn ngữ chung, coi như trong mọi tôn trọng đồng nghĩa ". Thực sự giàu có, tất nhiên, bao gồm những gì được sản xuất và tiêu thụ các thực phẩm chúng ta ăn, quần áo chúng ta mặc, những ngôi nhà chúng ta đang sống. | THE ASSAULT ON SAVING 197 switched their demand from capital goods to consumers goods. Still another objection is made against saving. It is said to be just downright silly. The Nineteenth Century is derided for its supposed inculcation of the doctrine that mankind through saving should go on making itself a larger and larger cake without ever eating the cake. This picture of the process is itself naive and childish. It can best be disposed of perhaps by putting before ourselves a somewhat more realistic picture of what actually takes place. Let us picture to ourselves then a nation that collectively saves every year about 20 per cent of all it produces in that year. This figure greatly overstates the amount of net saving that has occurred historically in the United States 3 but it is a round figure that is easily handled and it gives the benefit of every doubt to those who believe that we have been oversaving. Now as a result of this annual saving and investment the total annual production of the country will increase each year. To isolate the problem we are ignoring for the moment booms slumps or other fluctuations. Let us say that this annual increase in production is 2 percentage points. Percentage points are taken instead of a com- 3 Historically 20 per cent would represent approximately the gross amount of the gross national product devoted each year to capital formation excluding consumers equipment . When allowance is made for capital consumption however net annual savings have been closer to 12 per cent. Cf. George Terborgh The Bogey of Economic Maturity 1945 . 198 ECONOMICS IN ONE LESSON pounded percentage merely to simplify the arithmetic. The picture that we get for an eleven-year period say would then run something like this in terms of index numbers Year Total Production Consumers Goods Produced Capital Goods Produced First IOO 80 20 Second 82 Thhd 105 84 21 Fourth IO7-5 86 Fifth no 88 22 Sixth n 90 Seventh 115 92 23 Eighth .