SEMAINE D'ÉTUDE SUR LE ROLE DE L’ANALYSE ECONOMETRIQUE ETC. 733
Thus. in this study, G.N.P. is equal to the sum of national
income R and of primary income Re.
These results may seem to be somewhat disconcerting at
first sight, but it will become clear after some reflection that
they are more natural than those which follow from the adoption
of the rather arbitrary concepts usually applied in national
accounting.
If, using the usual conventions, amortisation turns out to
he only of the order of 20%, of consumed national income, the
reason is once again that standard systems only allow for the
amortization of goods whose life expectancy exceeds one year,
or even several years, while all the services invested in a shortperiod
process are not brought into the books as such but are
considered as fungible goods.
The example of the Martin furnace has been given already,
and a multitude of others could be added to it. Thus, outlays
corresponding to certain preparatory work in mining underrakings,
those corresponding to a wide variety of agricultural
activities, or again a great deal of the maintenance work done
in various sectors, for example lorry repair, are considered as
operating expenses.
Similarly, the work of the grocer’s boy who stocks sardine
cans on a shelf is an investment, but it is not counted as such.
[n the same way, a window cleaner’s activity represents an
investment, and the only reason it is brought in as an operating
expense is that this facilitates the accounting.
Under the formulation which I have given, all that which
is not immediately consumed is investment.
Thus, the service rendered by a waiter in a restaurant as
he nears the client’s table is incorporated in the capital value
of that semi-finished good, the dish to be served. This incorporated
capital will have been amortized when the customer
has completed his repast; but in the conventional evaluation
of capital it is not considered as an investment, nor is any
account taken of it in the usual estimation of G.N.P.
11] Allais - pag. 37
