We Can’t Consume Our Way to Prosperity

by | Dec 9, 2024

We Can’t Consume Our Way to Prosperity

by | Dec 9, 2024

Once upon a time, John Stuart Mill could write these words truthfully (“Of the Influence of Consumption on Production,” 1844):

It is no longer supposed that you benefit the producer by taking his money, provided you give it to him again in exchange for his goods.

He was talking, of course, about government tax-transfer programs intended to stimulate employment by subsidizing consumption. We cannot say this today.

Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman is the executive editor of The Libertarian Institute and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He is the former senior editor at the Cato Institute and Institute for Humane Studies; former editor of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education; and former vice president at the Future of Freedom Foundation. His latest books are Coming to Palestine and What Social Animals Owe to Each Other.

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