… is from David Hart’s marvelous 2019 translation – still only on-line, but forthcoming in print – of Frédéric Bastiat’s 1850 Economic Harmonies; specifically, it’s from Chapter XI, titled “Producer and Consumer” [original emphases]:
I would very much like the language of economics to supply me with two words other than “production” and “consumption” to designate services which are rendered and received, since these two words are sullied by their materialist connotations. Obviously there are services, such as those provided by priests, teachers, soldiers, or artists, which promote morality, education, security, or an appreciation of beauty, and which have nothing in common with production as routinely understood, other than their goal of (providing) satisfaction.
These terms are now accepted, and I do not want to turn myself into a neologist. But at least let it be fully understood that by production I mean that which bestows utility (on something) and by consumption the enjoyment produced by this utility.
DBx: This seemingly esoteric point is important. Failure to understand what economists mean by “production” and “consumption” fuels people such as Oren Cass to insist that in making the case for free trade economists naively suppose that people don’t value their roles as producers, or that people are interested only in maximizing their sensual pleasures or materialistic desires. This misunderstanding is one that I address in a forthcoming long-form essay for AIER.
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In 1801 on this date, June 29th, Bastiat was born in (or near) Bayonne, France.
