3 Quotes & Sayings By Carl Menger

Carl Menger was an Austrian economist who developed the theory of marginal utility in economics. He is widely considered to be the founder of the Austrian School of economics. Menger was educated in Vienna where he received his doctorate in 1872. He worked in various posts at the Austrian Mint, in several banks, and as a private tutor Read more

His studies in economics were interrupted by the war. After the war, he resumed his academic work, becoming professor of political economy at the University of Vienna in 1881.

1
When I discussed the nature of value, I observed that value is nothing inherent in goods and that it is not a property of goods. But neither is value an independent thing. There is no reason why a good may not have value to one economizing individual but no value to another individual under different circumstances. The measure of value is entirely subjective in nature, and for this reason a good can have great value to one economizing individual, little value to another, and no value at all to a third, depending upon the differences in their requirements and available amounts. What one person disdains or values lightly is appreciated by another, and what one person abandons is often picked up by another. Carl Menger
2
Money is not an invention of the state. It is not the product of a legislative act. Even the sanction of political authority is not necessary for its existence. Certain commodities came to be money quite naturally, as the result of economic relationships that were independent of the power of the state. Carl Menger