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net output is gross realized output less depreciation plus proprietary output. Both drop by the amount of Bill’s maintenance consumption on Phil’s books asa slaveowner. So then does Bill’s present value of that cash flow. This noir thought experiment is worth thinking through. It shows that even if slavery were legal and common, its market evidence would neither show the value of human capital nor refute the fact that human capital is inalienable. It is inalienable for the reason, if none other, that our maintenance consumption satisfies no one else’s tastes. Phil did not acquire Bill’s human capital. He converted it to livestock worth much less. Another useful point is that assets in general tend to be worth more to their owners. This does not contradict the convergence axioms. We buy or build to taste. That difference is particularly important as to assets not meant to be traded, such as productive plant. I suspect that this is what the national accounts missed in adjusting depreciation. Maintenance Learning Ben-Porath argued, persuasively | believe, that both kinds of investment in human capital must end when not enough time remains for recovery with interest. Those two are invested consumption, including schooling, and self-invested work. I propose that invested consumption substantially ends at maturity and independence. Self-invested work of learning continues long after, as there remains no other adequate explanation of age-wage profiles. When does it stop? Learning itself continues to the end. Yet if Ben-Porath is right, and he is, self- invested learning stops well before. What continues, | think, is what I call “maintenance learning”. It is defined as learning to keep up pay now rather than to enhance pay later. At all ages, we must learn the names and traits of new clients and co-workers and suppliers and regulations continually to do what we are paid for. Chapter 5 Bringing Human Capital In 1/13/16 9 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011028