er a smoothly
working system they clearly must be, from the production of other and
more immediately consumable things. Hence, some time later, the
supplies of consumable things will be diminished, while at a later
period still they will be more than correspondingly increased as the
result of the assistance of the new durable instruments. That is the
essence of saving from the social standpoint. An early future is
sacrificed to a more remote future. The aggregate consumable income of
the present is unaffected; the aggregate consumable income of the near
future is actually diminished; it is not until at least some years
later that the aggregate consumable income is increased.

Sec.6. _Individual and Social Saving_. This conclusion is important: but
there is an obvious misinterpretation against which it will be well to
guard. It is customary for social moralists to preach thrift and
saving as a public duty, and to impart to their appeals a special note
of urgency in times like the present, when, as the result of the havoc
of the war, destitution is widespread over Europe. Now obviously these
advisers do not mean to recommend something which will impoverish the
world next year and the year after and the benefit of which will
accrue only in a distant future: it is the immediate urgency of the
world's needs which is rather the substance of their case. Nor would
it be right to conclude that these wise men are the victims of a
delusion, and advocate a course, the consequence of which they do not
understand. The explanation of the paradox is simple. The more the
community as a whole saves now, the less in the near future will be
the aggregate consumable income of the whole community: but not of the
_remainder_ of the community, exclusive of the savers. It is the saver
who must wait, whose consumption must be postponed to perhaps a
distant future; but _at no time_ does his saving result in a smaller
income of consumable goods for other people. The aggregate consumable
income of the near future will be diminished, but it may be better
distributed, and it may consist of things of a different _kind_. For
consumers' goods, we must remember, comprise champagne and motor cars
as well as food and clothes; and, if a rich man saves, it may be
purely articles of luxury, the production of which will shortly be
diminished. Moreover, if his saving has the effect of transferring
purchasing power to impoverished people, like those in Central