Цитата про деньги и то, что за них не купишь
По наводке Олега Андреева читаю книгу Man, Economy and State экономиста Марри Ротбарда (Murray Rothbard). Эта книга объясняет все рациональные поступки людей (оказывается, экономика — как раз об этом наука). Не помню, когда последний раз читал настолько же интересую книгу. На каждой странице что-нибудь подчёркиваю себе. Может, когда-нибудь напишу о ней обстоятельнее.
Но пока просто любопытная мысль о том, что не купишь за деньги. Это идёт практически сразу после того, как в книге, наконец, вообще заходит речь о деньгах (курсив оригинала; многоточия — мои пропуски):
We have seen that, in the money economy, other things being equal, men will attempt to attain the highest possible money income: if they are investors, they will try to obtain the largest net return; if they sell their labor service, they will sell it for the largest return... Before we proceed to a deeper analysis of the money economy, it is important to examine the «other things being equal», or the ceteris paribus, qualification.
In chapter 1, we examined the truth that in every action, men try to obtain the greatest advantage, i.e., to attain the end located on the highest possible point on their value scale... This is a praxeological truth, a general law holding for all human action, with no qualification whatsoever. Now the establishment of indirect exchange, or a money economy, enables every person to obtain a vast number of consumers’ goods that he could not obtain, or could barely obtain, in isolation or by way of barter... To some people, many of the unexchangeable consumers’ goods are very precious and hold a high place on their value scale. To others, these goods mean little, as compared to those consumers’ goods that can be bought in exchange. The ranking on his value scale depends entirely on the voluntary choice of each individual. It is nonsense to place the blame on «money» for the tendencies of some people to value exchangeable goods highly as compared to some nonexchangeable goods. There is no force in the existence of the money economy that compels men to make such choices; money simply enables men to expand enormously their acquisition of exchangeable goods. But the existence of the market leaves it to each individual to decide how he will value money and the goods that money will buy, as against other goods that are unexchangeable.
As a matter of fact, the existence of the money economy has the reverse effect. Since, as we know from the law of utility, the marginal utility of a unit of any good diminishes as its supply increases, and the establishment of money leads to an enormous increase in the supply of exchangeable goods, it is evident that this great supply enables men to enjoy unexchangeable goods to a far greater extent than would otherwise be the case. The very fact that exchangeable consumers’ goods are more abundant enables each individual to enjoy more of the nonexchangeable ones.
...Contrary, therefore, to the common accusation that the establishment of a money economy tends to lead men to slight the importance of nonexchangeable goods, the effect is precisely the reverse. A destitute person is far less likely to prefer the nonexchangeable to the exchangeable than one whose «standard of living» in terms of the latter is high.
По-моему это очень важная мысль, которая логически объясняет, почему капитализм приводит к куда более бескорыстному обществу, чем системы, говорящие о его зверином оскале.
