Joan Robinson: Profit

“To supply goods is a source of profit, but to supply services is a ' burden upon industry.”

Joan Robinson

It is for this reason that when, as a nation, ' we have never had it so good ' we find that we ' cannot afford ' just what we most need.
Source: Contributions to Modern Economics (1978), Chapter 21, Latter-Day Capitalism, p. 239

“If knowledge develops as capital accumulates, there need be no tendency to diminishing returns, and with constant returns there can be no tendency for the rate of profit to fall (always assuming that the problem ofeffective demand as ruled out).”

Joan Robinson book An Essay on Marxian Economics

Source: An Essay on Marxian Economics (Second Edition) (1966), Chapter V, The Falling Rate Of Profit, p. 38

Knowledge , Problem

“The orthodox doctrines of economics which were dominant in the last quarter of the nineteenth century had a clear message. They supported laisser faire, free trade, the gold standard, and the universally advantageous effects of the pursuit of profit by competitive private enterprise.”

Joan Robinson

Introduction, p. vii
Economic Heresies (1971)

Support , Universe

“To supply goods is a source of profit, but to supply services is a ' burden upon industry '. It is for this reason that when, as a nation, ' we have never had it so good ' we find that we ' cannot afford ' just what we most need.”

Joan Robinson

Source: Contributions to Modern Economics (1978), Chapter 21, Latter-Day Capitalism, p. 239

“Rosa Luxemburg maintained that the capitalist system can keep up its rate of investment (and therefore its profits) only so long as it is expanding geographically.”

Joan Robinson

Source: Economic Heresies (1971), Chapter III, Interest and Profits, p. 50 (confer Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Buch II, Chapter XX, p. 474)

“Modern technique, as Marx pointed out, fosters the concentration of capital, and the levels of profits is supported by a scarcity of enterprise which is not due to the real cost of risk-bearing, but to the scarcity of individuals who have anything to risk.”

Joan Robinson book An Essay on Marxian Economics

Source: An Essay on Marxian Economics (Second Edition) (1966), Chapter VII, The Orthodox Theory of Profit, p. 57-58

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