In Reply to: Trying to create a New Economics posted by Osbert Lancaster on June 01, 1996 at 13:40:50:
I would go further and say that, in a capitalist society, if something cannot be measured in money terms it does not _exist_. An example is the writing-off of equipment over several years to the point where it has no financial value and no longer appears as an asset, even though it clearly does physically exist and is still used.The other aspect of this is that people who have no money also do not exist as far as the capitalist society is concerned, in the sense that they are completely outside the system and have no influence on it whatsoever. People, sorry 'consumers', are only measured by their economic activity and if they have none then their presence cannot be detected. This is why cash-poor people in the 3rd World have no control over what the 1st World does to them: because they do not exist.