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then pictured a future instant’s worth of expected satisfaction. Its perceived value at that future moment would give its perceived value now save for differences explained by the time gap between. | adopted the old terms time preference or time discount rate to account for whatever they might be. There was no assumption as to whether the rate should prove positive or negative or zero, nor that the same rate should apply to other future instants. My goal was to leave not even the farthest- fetched of loopholes. If I have succeeded, the present value rule followed as subjective certitude giving exact expectations, though not outcomes, for each future instant and thus for all together. Note that my depreciation theory follows, but with the caveat that the version I have shown adds the usual assumption that time preference is positive. That part is not certitude, although neither are we likely to doubt it. It was not hard to derive the maximand rule as the next step. Once we define tastes or more generally aims as whatever behavior reveals, the rest follows quickly. (Remember that I have no problem with mutually circular definitions.) There were probably a few heuristic novelties. The parable of the boss and her secretary might itself be new. So might the slave paradox with its parable of Phil and Bill. Many including Adam Smith have pointed out economic inefficiencies in slavery, moral criticism aside. I can’t recall mention of this most obvious one. Bill’s maintenance consumption was taste-satisfying cash flow to Bill, and capitalized in his present value to himself. It is pure expense to Phil once Bill is enslaved. If all but one of us were enslaved by the one left, national output would drop by substantially all maintenance consumption on the books of the one slaveowner. There may also be minor novelty in my analogy between accounting for the firm and accounting for human capital in Chapter 6. One possible example is my use of the term “decapitalization” to include depletion and liquidation in sale as well as depreciation. It simplifies to depreciation in the case of human capital because that factor cannot be alienated in reinvestment or gift or sale. One inference was that Chapter 9: So What ‘s New? 3/17/16 5 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011121