However, if investment in capital is foregone consumption, then consumption is foregone investment. If I invest in the stock market today (altruistic), then in ten years’ time spend my profits on a bigger house (selfish), then some of the good is undone. So the true altruist will not merely create capital, he will make sure that capital will never get spent down. One good way of doing that would be to donate to an institution likely to hold onto its capital in perpetuity, and likely to grow that capital over time. Perhaps the best example of such an institution would be a richly-endowed private university, such as Harvard, which has existed for almost 400 years and is said to have an endowment of $32 billion.
Capital that goes unspent forever is a meaningless piece of paper, or eventually, just constitutes power over other people. In the limit, an economy which has most of its productive power tied up as liquid capital undergoes a deflationary collapse due to general-glut conditions.
Capital that goes unspent forever is a meaningless piece of paper, or eventually, just constitutes power over other people. In the limit, an economy which has most of its productive power tied up as liquid capital undergoes a deflationary collapse due to general-glut conditions.
If I invest money into a startup and make a return of my investment I keep my capital but the investment isn’t meaningless.
That wasn’t unspent. It was, somewhere down the line, manifested as actual commodities (ie: whatever the “startup” actually makes).
Harvard doesn’t put his money in the mattress, they invest it. If you count invested money as spent, than they spend it.