The Myth of Government Investment

in #economics7 years ago

There is a lot of emphasis of "investment" in this speech. Here is a relevant snippet from Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression.

"There can be no such [government] investment. "Investment" is defined as expenditures made not for the direct satisfaction of those who make it, but for other, ultimate consumers. Machines are produced not to serve the entrepreneur, but to serve the ultimate consumers, who in turn remunerate the entrepreneurs. But government acquires it's funds by seizing them from private individuals; the spending of the funds, therefore, gratifies the desires of government officials. Government officials have forcibly shifted production from satisfying private consumers to satisfying themselves; their spending is therefore pure consumption and can by no stretch of the term be called "investment".

As I listen to this mobster, my mind wanders to question whether Corbyn himself is aware of his dastardly doings. Is he oblivious and blissfully ignorant or is he aware that he is a menacing man? If it is not the latter, how can that be?