Economic essays

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Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Title:: The static state and the technology of economic reform / Thomas Nixon Carver

Collection:: Economics Books

THE STATIC STATE AND THE TECHNOLOGY OF ECONOMIC REFORM Thomas Nixon Carver OxE of Professor Clark's special contributions to economic theory is his clarification of the concept of a static condition. Instead of being a mere useless abstraction this concept turns out to be one of the most productive ideas ever introduced into economic discussion. It is, as he insists, a necessary preliminary to any proper understanding of a dynamic condition and the laws which govern it. In fact, every dynamic movement is either a disturbance of a static condition, or a series of movements by which the static condition is reasserting itself, or rather, by which a new static condition is being established after the disturbance. Thus understood, the concept of the static state is a guiding prin- ciple comparable in importance with the law of diminishing returns, or the marginal utility theory of value. It furnishes the key to all constructive programs of permanent economic improve- ment,—particularly for the improvement of the distribution of wealth. A static condition is an equilibrium of forces. By disturbing the equilibrium intelligently, the forces at work can be made to produce automatically, so far as further effort is concerned, many desirable results. This is the method of every great practical achievement in whatever field, from engineering to diplomacy. Any other method is likely to create difficulties which multiply the necessary effort in geometric proportion. The biologist’s concept of the balance of nature is a concept of a static condition. By intelligently introducing a new factor into the balance the biologist can so disturb it as to produce, with slight effort, results that would require armies to accomplish by more direct methods. Insect pests such as the chinch bug and the gypsy moth, and other pests such as the English sparrow, have been effectively controlled in this way. Rats in the sugar ")

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