on actions that take many actions to be complete

[fakename]

is a long action considered an action (like trying to get into the afterlife and graduating high school). Or is it considered a bunch of actions? And if such long actions do exist, wouldn’t there be 1) interest attached and 2) wouldn’t the supply curve be based on things like God or schools and 3) isn’t God in a different Genus from man and so the very concept of supply-demand is spoken of not univocally"?

[TelfordUS]

It’s considered one single action. Graduating high school is one objective fulfilled by fulfilling lesser objectives, like doing homework and passing tests.

[fakename]

I wonder though, if the lesser objectives are to be considered as interest due to the fact that graduating high school is a far-away end. Am I applying the time-preference theory right?

[fakename]

shameless bump [:$]

[nirgrahamUK]

@Mises

Strictly speaking, people do not long for tangible goods as such, but for the services which these goods are fitted to render them. They want to attain the increment in well-being which these services are able to convey. But if this is so, it is not permissible to except from the orbit of “economic ”action those actions which remove uneasiness directly without the interposition of any tangible and visible things. The advice of a doctor, the instruction of a teacher, the recital of an artist, and other personal services are no less an object of economic studies than the architect’s plans for the construction of a building, the scientist’s formula for the production of a chemical compound, and the author’s contribution to the publishing of a book.

The subject matter of catallactics is all market phenomena with all their roots, ramifications, and consequences. It is a fact that people in dealing on the market are motivated not only by the desire to get food, shelter, and sexual enjoyment, but also by manifold “ideal ”urges. Acting man is always concerned both with “material ”and “ideal ”things. He chooses between various alternatives, no matter whether they are to be classified as material or ideal. In the actual scales of value material and ideal things are jumbled together. Even if it were feasible to draw a sharp line between material and ideal concerns, one must realize that every concrete action either aims at the realization both of material and ideal ends or is the outcome of a choice between something material andsomething ideal.

Whether it is possible to separate neatly those actions which aim at the satisfaction of needs exclusively conditioned by man’s physiological constitution from other “higher ”needs can be left undecided. But we must not overlook the fact that in reality no food is valued solely for its nutritive power and no garment or house solely for the protection it affords against cold weather and rain. It cannot be denied that the demand for goods is widely influenced by metaphysical, religious, and ethical considerations, by aesthetic value judgments, by customs, habits, prejudices, tradition, changing fashions, and many other things. To an economist who would try to restrict his investigation gations to “material ”aspects only, the subject matter of inquiryvanishes as soon he wants to catch it.

All that can be contended is this: Economics is mainly concerned with the analysis of the determination of money prices of goods and services exchanged on the market. In order to accomplish this task it must start from a comprehensive theory of human action. Moreover, it must study not only the market phenomena, but no less the hypothetical conduct of an isolated man and of a socialist community. Finally, it must not restrict its investigations to those modes of action which in mundane speech are called “economic ”actions, but must deal also with actions which are in a loose manner of speech called “uneconomic."

[fakename]

this is a good enough answer to my third question but I am wondering if interest payments in long actions consists of the profits of each particular action or the final payoff from the last action. I would think the last -anyone else agree/disagree?

[nirgrahamUK]

I will try…

There is gain from receiving the end, rather than other alternative ends that were on offer when you started driving towards the end.

and there is originary interest from the difference between how much you value the end and how much you valued the means you dissipated in achieving it