By the factory is operating in the short run. But, if the factory is operating in the long run, then it must be producing.
So, when a new factory opens in town, people tend to wonder what will happen to the jobs that are being cut out. But, if that factory is operating in the long run, then it must be producing. But, if that factory is operating in the short run then it is producing.
The factory being operating in the short run may actually be the “long run,” since in the long run, the factory is producing. So, when a new factory opens, the jobs that are being cut out may not be so cut out. But, if the factory is operating in the long run then it is producing.
Like most Americans, I have my doubts about whether we should be spending our money on things that will affect the economy in the long run. We spend money to have a future. We spend money to pay for things that we can’t do without. We spend money to make sure we don’t have to work more than we want to. We spend money so that we can take care of our kids in retirement. We spend money to pay for government programs.
We can all come up with arguments to support why our money should be spent this way. But I think our greatest argument is that we don’t have the right to make an “informed” decision about how to spend our money. We don’t have the right to make an “informed” decision about the future. The right to make an informed decision is not the same as the right to make a decision.
A good example of a factory operating in the short run is if we have a factory in our garage that makes cars, rather than trucks. We are not going to want to take the time to build a new factory for each and every car we buy.
The argument about a factory operating in the short run is not exactly something we should be making our decision about, but it is something we should be talking about. We should talk to our legislators and our government about what we should be doing with our money. We should be talking about what a factory that operates in the short run is doing to our economy. We are not talking about how we should be spending our money. We are talking about the short run.
The reason we don’t discuss long-run effects is because we know they will never happen. But it is a good thing to discuss in the short run. In general, it is good for long-term economic growth that we are starting to talk about the short run.
This week the Wall Street Journal has published a letter calling for a crackdown on “short-run” companies, companies that operate in the short run, such as companies that manufacture products for a fixed period of time. The letter says the problem is that we’re spending our money “in the short run,” but that’s only because we’re scared of the long run.
