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Capital that is not invested is consumed, in one way or another. … A family borrows against the increased equity in a house in order to buy a car is living on capital. A city in which the roads, buildings, and parks are deteriorating is doing the same thing. And so is a business that is not depreciating its machinery sufficiently because accounting procedures and tax laws do not fully recognize the effects of inflation….Capital that is neither invested or spent voluntarily is taxed away and consumed away. When capital is taxed by the state, it is diverted from an investment role to a consumption role….An economy living on capital rather than income resembles a body deprived of nourishment, living off its own tissues and wasting away. But this is not an organism that is starving because of external factors beyond its control. It is, rather, suffering from an infantile inability to discipline itself and provide for its future.
Herb Schlossberg
Idols for Destruction, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983