National economy

“ To a thriving agriculture and the improvements related to it is added a highly interesting extension of useful manufactures, the combined product of professional occupations and of household industry. Such indeed is the experience of economy as well as of policy in these substitutes for supplies heretofore obtained by foreign commerce that in a national view the change is justly regarded as of itself more than a recompense for those privations and losses resulting from foreign injustice which furnished the general impulse required for its accomplishment. ”

“ He advocated more economy; less taxes; greater equality, and less distinction among the people. Also the establishment of a national bank, with branches in each state and territory, the net revenue therefrom to be applied to government interests. ”

“ That the growth of population will overpass the increase of production, there is not much reason to apprehend. It is, however, quite possible that there might be a great progress in industrial [pg 477] improvement, and in the signs of what is commonly called national prosperity; a great increase of aggregate wealth, and even, in some respects, a better distribution of it ”

“ The great end of legislation in matters of national wealth, according to the prevalent opinion, was to create consumers. A great and rapid consumption was what the producers, of all classes and denominations, wanted, to enrich themselves and the country. This object, under the varying names of an extensive demand, a brisk circulation, a great expenditure of money, and sometimes totidem verbis a large consumption, was conceived to be the great condition of prosperity. ”

“ I hold it the duty of the Executive to insist upon frugality in the expenditures, and a sparing economy is itself a great national resource. ”

“ Suppose that a number of foreigners with large incomes arrive in a country, and there expend those incomes: will this operation be beneficial, as respects the national wealth, to the country which receives these immigrants? Yes, say many political economists, if they save any part of their incomes, and employ them reproductively; because then an addition is made to the national capital, and the produce is a clear increase of the national wealth. But if the foreigner expends all his income unproductively, it is no benefit to the country, say they, and for the following reason. ”

“ A now receives his income, not from the produce of his capital, but from some other source of income belonging to C, probably from the rent of his land, that is, from payments made to him by farmers out of the produce of their capital. The national capital is diminished by ten thousand pounds, and the national income by all which those ten thousand pounds, employed as capital, would have produced. ”

“ We have studied as perhaps no other nation has the most effective means of production, but we have not studied cost or economy as we should either as organizers of industry, as statesmen, or as individuals. ”

“ Let it practice true and conscientious economy, not only in the expenditure and application of public moneys, but also in the method of levying them, so as to be equally just to all classes and all economical interests. ”

“ The State consolidates and develops the public sector of the economy, and encourages, supports, and guides the development of the non-public sector of the economy. The State implements a socialist market economy and protects the equal legal status and development rights of all market participants. ”

“ He considered it as an art. “Political Economy,” he says, in the introduction to the fourth book, “proposes two distinct objects: first, to provide a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people, or, more properly, to enable them to provide such a revenue or subsistence for themselves; and, secondly, to supply the state or common weal with a revenue sufficient for the public service. It proposes [43] to enrich both the people and the sovereign.” ”

“ Twelfth—That while providing revenue for the support of the general government, by duties upon imposts, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interest of the whole country, and we commend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence. ”

“ The state shall coordinate and regulate state-owned economy, co-operative economy, the individual economy of peasants and handicraftsmen, private capitalist economy and state capitalist economy, in their spheres of operations, supply of raw materials, marketing, labour conditions, technical equipment, policies of public and general finance, etc. ”

“ Resources of government.—All expenditures of government are as subject to economic laws with reference to consumption of wealth as are those of individuals. Actual result in welfare is the only reason for such expenditure. Hence the same tests of economy are applied. Government makes but few expenditures for the immediate purpose of reproducing and increasing wealth. So far as its investments sustain productive industry, and the products of that industry enter into the world's market, they are subject to the same economic laws of supply and demand that govern all production of wealth. ”

“ There is much in favour of the third definition, that which defines Political Economy as the art which teaches what production, distribution, accumulation, and consumption of wealth is most conducive to the happiness of mankind, and what are the habits and institutions most favourable to that production, distribution, accumulation, and consumption.
It raises the political economist to a commanding eminence. The most extensive, though perhaps not the most important, portion of human nature, lies within his horizon. ”

“ Economic conditions require readjustment, important matters of trade must be regulated, vital questions of finance and taxation must be handled, in fact, the whole country must settle down to production, manufacture, distribution of merchandise, and the transaction of the nation’s regular business. ”

“ In practice the study of “political” economy is mainly devoted to the sphere of the State; the welfare of the individual as a member of the State, and of the State in its relation to the world, being internal aspects of the prosperity of the State itself. Economics thus includes the discussion of all the numerous factors which make life profitable, whether to the nation or to the business, or to the individual man. ”

“ As I said, we've got experts from a wide range of business sectors, and what we're going to talk about is, are there mechanisms that we can start putting in place where we see the kind of growth that used to characterize the U.S. economy -- export-driven growth, manufacturing growth, growth that pays high wages and provides high living standards for a broad-based middle class. ”

“ Ought these questions to be resolved differently in an old country and in a colony, in a monarchy, in an aristocracy, and in a republic? If Political Economy be a branch of the art of government, these inquiries form a branch, though a very small one, of Political Economy. ”

“ Tonight, there is every sign that the state of our Union is sound.
Our economy offers greater prosperity for more of our people than ever before. Real per capita income and real business profits have risen substantially in the last 2 years. Farm exports are setting an all-time record each year, and farm income last year, net farm income, was up more than 25 percent. ”

“ His abstinence from precept, and even from illustrations drawn from real life, is the more remarkable, as the subject of his treatise is distribution, the most practical branch of Political Economy, and taxation, the most practical branch of distribution.
The modern economists of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and America, so far as I am acquainted with their works, all treat Political Economy as an art. ”

“ To this end the authorities switched to a system of household responsibility in agriculture in place of the old collectivization, increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprise in services and light manufacturing, and opened the economy to increased foreign trade and investment. ”

“ On Tuesday, in my State of the Union Address, I laid out a blueprint for an economy built to last: an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values. This week, I took that blueprint across the country, and what I saw was people who work hard and believe in each other. They believe in the America that’s within our reach. ”

“ Nothing is more likely to produce that public confidence which is the forerunner and the mainstay of prosperity, encourage and enlarge business opportunity with ample opportunity for employment at good wages, provide a larger market for agricultural products, and put our country in a stronger position to be able to meet the world competition in trade, than a continuing policy of economy. Of course necessary costs must be met, proper functions of the Government performed, and constant investments for capital account and reproductive effort must be carried on by our various departments. ”

“ The Economic Function.—The nation has an economic function. It is its business to encourage trade by means that seem most likely to help, whether by subsidies, tariffs, or expert advice; to protect all producers, distributers, and consumers by just laws and tribunals, so that unfair privileges shall not be enjoyed by the few at the expense of the many, and to provide in every legitimate way for the spread of information and for experimentation that agriculture, mining, and manufacturing may be improved. ”

“ A previous application of labour to produce the capital required for consumption during the work, is no less essential than the application of labour to the work itself. Of capital, again, one, and by far the largest, portion, conduces to production only by sustaining in existence the labour which produces: the remainder, namely the instruments and materials, contribute to it directly, in the same manner with natural agents, and the materials supplied by nature.
We now advance to the second great question in political economy; on what the degree of productiveness of these agents depends. ”

“ Industry and commerce had given birth to a species of wealth different from that arising from territorial possessions. The progress of legislation necessarily kept pace with the development of the new national activity. ”

“ We think nowadays that the resources of a state depend upon the prosperity of the people, no matter whether this prosperity comes from agriculture or from manufactures, 167from internal trade or from foreign trade. Statesmen, however, of the period under discussion, set a peculiarly high value on foreign commerce, and regarded it as a more important branch of industry than any other. ”

“ This thoroughly modern market economy features high-tech agriculture, up-to-date small-scale and corporate industry, extensive government welfare measures, an equitable distribution of income, comfortable living standards, a stable currency, a stable political system, and high dependence on foreign trade. ”

“ But as the state became more and more involved in business affairs, it was able to advise what products would be in demand, when it was advisable to use caution and economy and when activity would be rewarded. The functions of the state as a medium of exchange between the producer and the consumer became rapidly extended, and before the close of the century it became the chief and in many things the only buyer and seller of the products in most common use, as well as the sole factor in all monopolies and in banking, insurance, and public amusements. ”

“ Towards this end, public policies should learn from the experience of more advanced countries by encouraging the establishment of investment houses quite distinct from the mutual funds. This will further strengthen the financial basis of the economy and assure sources of long-term funds for desirable productive ventures.
D. Economic Nationalism and Trade
Even as we are making provisions for expanding production, we have attended to increasing outlets for our output. ”

“ First, it shifts our emphasis in public and private spending from consumption to investment, initially by jumpstarting the economy in the short term and investing in our people, their jobs, and their incomes over the long run. ”

“ Far greater attention, now and for a long time to come, needs to be given to the principles of political economy and to their practical exemplification among us. The money men of the race should invest in enterprises calculated to give us a standing in the great mining, manufacturing, and commercial pursuits of the land. ”

“ We have surveyed the field of economical facts, and have examined how they stand related to one another as causes and effects; what circumstances determine the amount of production, of employment for labour, of capital and population; what laws regulate rent, profits, and wages; under what conditions and in what proportions commodities are interchanged between individuals and between countries. We have thus obtained a collective view of the economical phenomena of society, considered as existing simultaneously. ”

“ And there seems to be no room for doubt that whatever concerns the general interests of learning, of agriculture, of manufactures, and of commerce is within the sphere of the national councils, as far as regards an application of money. ”

“ That’s why our economy hasn’t just been the world’s greatest wealth creator – it’s bound America together, it’s created jobs, and it’s made the dream of opportunity a reality for generations of Americans. ”