Welfare vs Consumption (1949)
The illusion that consumption -- and its correlative, income -- is desirable probably stems from too great a preoccupation with what Knight calls "one-use goods," such as food and fuel, where the utilisation and consumption of the good are tightly bound together in a single act or event. ... any economy in the consumption of fuel that enables that enables us to maintain warmth or to generate power with lessened consumption again leaves us better of. ... there is no great value in consumption itself. ... Consumption is the death of capital, and the only valid arguments in favour of consumption are arguments in favour of death itself.
"Income or Welfare," Review of Economic Studies, 1949-50; Collected Papers Vol. I, p. 268-69.
Back to heisenberg uncertainty in social systems (1981)
On to "I have been able to be disreputable ever since" (1978)