“What is thus improperly regarded as profit, instead of as part of capital, is consumed by the entrepreneur or passed on either to the consumer in the form of price-reductions that would not otherwise have been made or to the labourer in the form of higher wages, and the government proceeds to tax it as income or profits. In any case, consumption of capital results from the fact that monetary depreciation falsifies capital accounting.”

Austrian and American political economist and philosopher

Ludwig Heinrich von Mises was an Austrian and American political economist and philosopher of the Austrian school. He is known for his work on classical liberalism and the place of consumers in a market economy. He wrote and lectured widely on the social value of classical liberalism, and on praxeology, the study most closely associated with his work. He is also known for comparing communism and capitalism, and for defending liberal ideas against the spread of illiberalism and authoritarianism in 20th-century Europe.