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Re: OWNERSHIP: Kurland's Con Game



Dear All,
    Conventional economists like to claim that Say's Law is a natural law when it is better described as Say's Theorem.  I think it was Keynes who described the "Law" as a self-evident identity.  In practice, of course, (in the present unfree markets of neoclassical finance capitalism), supply does not create its own demand and so  the "Law" does not work. 
 
Because of the conflict between a self-evident identity and reality, Say's Law (or rather, Theorem) has been the subject of great controversy for over 175 years.  And it will remain a subject of controversy while people have the fundamental misconception that labor creates most of the wealth.  Moreover,  it is remarkable that Say himself realised that "Say's Law" -- which was not original to Say but goes back at least to Adam Smith -- could not work in practice if the power of producing values is ascribed to labor alone (as Smith generally ascribes it).  See Binary Economics, pages 100-101 and 289 - 296. 
 
 Social Credit  is in a muddle over this subject because, on the one hand, it claims to understand the contribution of capital to output but, on the other, it has no serious proposal for spreading capital ownership (or, for that matter, for capital investment).  Which is the underlying reason why Bill Ryan is so hostile to binary economics.
 
It really is tempting fate for Bill to use phrases like "con game" in respect of binary economics because it is now getting a big welcome in  international conferences and is making good progress in the university teaching world -- the first teaching has just taken place in a prestigious Indonesian university -- and  it is likely to be soon taught in other universities. 
 
  
Rodney Shakespeare.
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: "William B. Ryan" <w_b_ryan@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 7:51 PM
Subject: OWNERSHIP: Kurland's Con Game

> Moulton mischaracterized Douglas's A+B theorem, and
> YOU mischaracterize Say's law to mean something quite
> different than what Moulton meant by the term--thereby
> mixing apples with oranges.
>
> Say's law is called a law by economists due to its
> allegedly automatic nature, that demand allegedly
> automatically equates to supply.
>
> You, in your typically quirky "binary" Kelsoist
> oddball definition, redefine Say's law to mean that if
> we consciously manipulate things in such a way
> suggested by the Kelsoists, demand will equate to
> supply.
>
> So, when you use commonly understood terms like Say's
> law, they mean something quite different in your
> peculiar language.
>
> Therefore, in your con game, you can "prove" anything
> you want.
> -
>
>
>
> --- "Norman G. Kurland" <
thirdway@cesj.org> wrote:
>
> > Dr. Harold Moulton, president of the Brookings
> > Institute during the
> > Depression, offered the clearest statement (see
> > below) I've seen to
> > explain why no nation would ever substitute Major
> > Douglas' A+B theorem
> > for Say's Law.
> [snipped]
>
>
>
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