The Theory of Idle Resources (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 732-41 | Added on Monday, July 25, 2011, 01:31 PM
The simplest illustrations of the productive service of mere availability seem almost fatuous. Consider capital consumers’ commodities of occasional utilization like the gramophone which is played only at odd times, the silk hat which is worn only at weddings and funerals, or the picture which is only providing obvious “satisfactions” when it is actually looked at. To refer to these as in “pseudo-idleness” may appear ironical. But closely parallel cases clearly involve problems of some importance. Thus, I may have a dozen suits of clothes, three cars (two of which are always in the garage), and so forth. One obvious aspect of all these things is that they are purchased “to be available.” A good deal of plant in the industrial world is also in this state. It exists because from time to time it will happen to be wanted. The most indubitable cases in the field of producers’ goods are those in which the phenomenon of “pseudo-idleness” has some regular periodicity. Thus, the plant of a salmon canning factory will not be working out of season, but it will not be unproductive because of that. Ploughs and harvesting machinery may have no alternative uses until the return of the appropriate season. The bottling apparatus of a jam factory may be still for the early hours of each conventional working day. Such regular, recurrent idleness can be confidently classed as “pseudo-idleness.”
- Highlight Loc. 732-41 | Added on Monday, July 25, 2011, 01:31 PM
The simplest illustrations of the productive service of mere availability seem almost fatuous. Consider capital consumers’ commodities of occasional utilization like the gramophone which is played only at odd times, the silk hat which is worn only at weddings and funerals, or the picture which is only providing obvious “satisfactions” when it is actually looked at. To refer to these as in “pseudo-idleness” may appear ironical. But closely parallel cases clearly involve problems of some importance. Thus, I may have a dozen suits of clothes, three cars (two of which are always in the garage), and so forth. One obvious aspect of all these things is that they are purchased “to be available.” A good deal of plant in the industrial world is also in this state. It exists because from time to time it will happen to be wanted. The most indubitable cases in the field of producers’ goods are those in which the phenomenon of “pseudo-idleness” has some regular periodicity. Thus, the plant of a salmon canning factory will not be working out of season, but it will not be unproductive because of that. Ploughs and harvesting machinery may have no alternative uses until the return of the appropriate season. The bottling apparatus of a jam factory may be still for the early hours of each conventional working day. Such regular, recurrent idleness can be confidently classed as “pseudo-idleness.”
