"Economists counter this mercantilist belief by pointing out that money is valuable only because it can be exchanged for real goods and services. Ultimately, wealth is not money and money is not wealth; ultimately wealth is the use of real goods and services. People who envy Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates or Dave the hedge-fund manager across town don’t really envy Jeff’s, Bill’s, or Dave’s possession of billions of Federal Reserve Notes (or of pieces of paper or streams of electronic bits that are easily convertible into dollars or some other currency). What the envious envy is Jeff’s, Bill’s, and Dave’s luxurious homes, luxury automobiles, private jets, top-rate medical care, and regular consumption of other real goods and services that are not affordable in the same quantities by less-wealthy people.Mercantilists are mired in the odd misunderstanding that, because Jeff, Bill, and Dave would on paper be even richer if they each lived like paupers, they harm themselves when they spend the money they’ve earned. According to mercantilist ill-logic, each should spend nothing beyond that infinitesimally small portion of his fortune that is necessary to keep him alive and working well; each should refuse to buy the likes of mansions, jets, automobiles, closets full of clothing, a personal chef, private schooling for his kids and grandkids, and exotic vacations.
Mercantilists see nothing beyond $$$ (or whatever currency they happen to obsess over). But here’s an odd fact: as much as mercantilists love money, they implicitly reject at least three of money’s four chief functions...."
https://fee.org/articles/modern-mercantilists-misunderstand-money/
Mercantilists see nothing beyond $$$ (or whatever currency they happen to obsess over). But here’s an odd fact: as much as mercantilists love money, they implicitly reject at least three of money’s four chief functions...."
https://fee.org/articles/modern-mercantilists-misunderstand-money/