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To ignore social costs because they require an evaluation by society... and to leave social losses out of account because they are 'external' and 'non-economic' in character, would be equivalent to attributing no or ‘zero’ value to all social damages which is no less arbitrary and subjective a judgement than any positive or negative evaluation of social costs.

— Karl William Kapp p. 12. Cited in: M. Rangone & S. Solari (2012)

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More quotes by Karl William Kapp

Social costs... are all direct and indirect losses sustained by third persons or the general public as a result of unrestrained economic activities.

p. 12. Cited in: M. Rangone & S. Solari (2012)

Whenever social costs are shifted onto economically and politically weaker sections of society without compensation, a redistribution of the costs of production, hence real income is involved.

Had there been a computer in 1872... it would probably have predicted that there would be so many horse-drawn vehicles that it would be impossible to clear up all the manure.

Capitalism must be regarded as an economy of unpaid costs, ‘unpaid’ in so far as a substantial portion of the actual costs of production remains unaccounted for in entrepreneurial outlays; instead they are shifted to, and ultimately borne by, third persons or by the community as a whole.

p. 231. Cited in: Rania Ghosn (2012)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Karl William Kapp (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.