But, whatever the cause or effect, spending always goes up whenever groups decide to spend more – and government decisions to spend more are as good as anybody else’s. They are as good as the decisions of mortgage companies and new homebuyers to spend more on new houses during the housing bubble of the mid-2000’s, or of the princes of Silicon Valley to spend more building new companies during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990’s.
两个半世纪以来，经济学家一直认为，只要一些人群决定增加开支，那么经济体的支出流就会上升。支出上升的原因有时在于可支配现金的增加，有时在于机会成本（即放弃某种做法、例如放弃储蓄的成本）的变化令人们愿意加快花钱的速度。在某些时期以及某种程度上，支出的增长表现为物价上涨；在某些时期以及某种程度上，支出的增长又会表现为生产与就业的增长。