Investment is an expense and don’t let anyone tell you different – not even a fashionable professor.
– Tim Worstall, who is probably annoyed at how often he has to state the bleedin’ obvious.
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Samizdata quote of the day – investment is an expenseSamizdata Illuminatus (Arkham, Massachusetts) · Economics, Business & Globalization · Slogans & Quotations September 21st, 2023 |
 10 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – investment is an expense |
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I’m sure he is. We live in clown world.
Don’t get me wrong, I love reading his stuff, but that statement above is an extremely safe bet no matter the subject.
😉
If I take $100 and buy £81 with it, is that an expense, or a currency conversion?
If I I want lunch, and I pick up your wallet and buy it for myself with your money, is that an expense?
Many of the things politicians “invest” in are really just currency conversion from other-peoples-money to votes.
So I don’t agree that public spending on school meals or climate change is an expense, it is more like theft and bribery.
“Invest” is politician doublespeak for “Spend money on things that will make me and my cronies wealthy…”
Solyndra, anyone? Any of a half-a-dozen different “initiatives” that these crooks come up with?
By this point, you start hearing these words, you really, truly ought not be surprised when they fail to perform as promised, and that the life-long politician talking about it winds up retiring as a multi-millionaire.
I want a forensic accountant to look at all these assholes. It ought to be a friggin’ requirement that before they get to retire at their mandatory term limit that they have to be audited, and anything they can’t account for from salary? They lose it, and get prosecuted for taking bribes.
This crap has been egregious since I was a kid. Hillary Clinton and her little “Oh, I turned a little ol’ investment into millions, ‘cos I just got lucky…” Yeah. Right. Suuuuuure you did.
It was Gordon Brown who frequently promoted ‘investment’. I suspect he did that to adhere to his political promise to avoid borrowing to fund current expenditure. He could ‘invest’ for ‘capital expenditure’ through borrowing.
Government spending: Just different jam jars on the same mantelpiece.
Yes investment is an expense – but NO, government spending is NOT investment.
Instead of stating that basic truth, Tim Worstall says “yes, but…”
There is no “yes” – government spending is NOT investment.
Investment is getting Real Savings, the actual sacrifice of consumption, of cash money (not banker Credit Bubbles) and investing it in the hopes of making a profit.
When businesses do it, it’s probably to better serve their customers. When government does it it’s to better serve themselves.
Billll – investment is about making a profit.
How could we know, for sure, that “HS2” (“high speed rail 2”) was NOT investment? We could know that, from the start, because no one was prepared to put in their own REAL SAVINGS (the actual sacrifice of their own consumption) to fund it in the hope of making a profit – instead it was funded by the state.
If it is funded by the state it is NOT investment.
Amusingly:
This is one of those episodes where you would lose the bet with that particular comment. Not that that annoys me ……
Every individual instance can be an anomaly, but it’s wise in the long run to follow the established odds. 😉