Material Well-Being

Notwithstanding all declarations to the contrary, the immense majority of men aim first of all at an improvement of the material conditions of well-being. They want more and better food, better homes and clothes and a thousand other amenities. They strive after abundance and health.

Human Action, p. 96; p. 96

The average American worker enjoys amenities for which Croesus, Crassus, the Medici, and Louis XIV would have envied him.

Human Action, p. 265; p. 265

The increase in per capita consumption [material well-being] in America as compared with the conditions a quarter of a century ago is not an achievement of laws and executive orders. It is an accomplishment of businessmen who enlarged the size of their factories or built new ones.

Planned Chaos, p. 15

The immense majority strives after a greater and better supply of food, clothes, homes, and other material amenities. In calling a rise in the masses’ standard of living progress and improvement, economists do not espouse a mean materialism. They simply establish the fact that people are motivated by the urge to improve the material conditions of their existence.

Human Action, pp. 193–94; p. 193

The only means to increase a nation’s welfare is to increase and to improve the output of products.

Planning for Freedom, p. 6

The preservation and the further improvement of what is called “the American way of life” and “an American standard of living” depends on the maintenance and the further increase of the capital invested in American business.

Planning for Freedom, p. 92

A nation cannot prosper if its members are not fully aware of the fact that what alone can improve their conditions is more and better production. And this can only be brought about by increased saving and capital accumulation.

Planning for Freedom, pp. 92–93

There is but one means to improve the material well-being of men, viz., to accelerate the increase in capital accumulated as against population.

Planning for Freedom, p. 143

Not through war and victory but only through work can a nation create the preconditions for the well-being of its members.

Nation, State, and Economy, p. 87