And I repeat that most other structures are not meant to be resold. Productive plant is customized to original owners. Tract housing is not, but becomes adapted to them. Original plant operators and homeowners typically expect to stay put. Most do. When they do, their own valuations are higher than would likely be realized in sale. Owners’ valuations matter. Economics is more than prediction of sales prices. It is prediction of behavior. It is the owner’s valuation of an asset, not a hypothetical
outside valuation, that predicts what he will do to exploit and defend it.
My depreciation theory does not jolt settled belief as forcibly as free growth theory or the pay rule and Y rule do. It contradicts only a minor feature of the national accounts. But it contradicts that diametrically, and adds clarity to the pay rule too. It is also original as far as | know. Who has said such a thing before? All the more fun and satisfaction in finding out and setting the record straight. There are giants out there, whether I ever make it to their shoulders or not, and economic history means
identifying them.
Retirement Theory
Retirement generally means the period or first moment when people end the careers for which their training has been specialized. The reason is typically not diminished skills and performance just yet, as age-wage profiles show no little or no drop in pay toward the end. I think itis more that we and our bosses see the drop
coming.
Literal pay is typically zero in retirement. Instead we earn imputed pay for taking care of ourselves and one another, and for driving the grandkids to the zoo. These services are tangible, not psychic, in that they save the hire of others to do the same. The imputed pay is what the others would have charged. But it typically is not enough to meet our consumption needs. Retirees must typically draw down savings or depend on “social transfer payments”, meaning support from government or
family or foundations, to make ends meet.
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