The social Theory of Georg Simmel

The nature of capital and income

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1024612627

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-166627

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Spykman, Nicholas J. http://d-nb.info/gnd/124229867

Title:: The social Theory of Georg Simmel

Place of publication:: Chicago

Publisher:: Univ. of Chicago Press.

Year of publication:: 1925

Scope:: XXIX, 297 S

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

102 NATURE OF CAPITAL AND INCOME [CHar. VII in an obscure and ambiguous phraseology.! Were it not for an instinctive feeling that there exists a definite income- concept, the repeated failure to formulate it might lead one to conclude that it is not susceptible of any exact and rig- orous definition, and that the best course is to abandon its search as futile. Kleinwiichter, who wrote a book espe- cially devoted to this subject, specifically takes this course. He states that there is no useful concept of income.? His idea is that, originally, merchants attempted to keep a record of their transactions by counting the money which they received and disbursed, and that, in consequence of this, arose the “illusory” notion that through some such record the complete economic standing of an individual or firm could be expressed. He observes, that such a com- plete picture could not be obtained by recording merely the incomings and outgoings of money, but should include likewise the incomings and outgoings of every other kind of wealth? A complete record, he states, would alone cover the required ground. So-called statistics of in- come are, he maintains, merely a makeshift for sucha record. * But why should the possibility of a coneept of income be rejected because it does not reveal a « complete” picture of an individuals economic condition? On the same plea we might also reject the possibility of a concept of capital. ! E.g. F. Y. Edgeworth, Palgrave’s Dictionary of Political Econom Y, article, “Income,” Vol. II, p. 374: — “Income may be defined as the wealth, measured in money, which is at the disposal of an individual, or a community, per year or other unit of time.” (The italics are the present writer’s.) This formula- tion is adopted by N. G. Pierson, Principles of Economics, London (Macmillan), 1902, p. 76. ; ? Das Einkommen und seine Verteilung, Leipzig, 1896, p- 11, 30p. vit., p. 14. * The present writer at one time also expressed these doubts (Economic Journal, December, 1896, pp. 553, 554). By aid of the criticisms of Cannan and Edgeworth, the conclusions here stated were reached. These were first outlined in “Senses of Capital,” Economic Journal, June, 1897, and in “The Réle of Capital in Economic Theory,” Economic Journal, December, 1897.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The nature of capital and income

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation