About This Quote

When you want to make a comparison between two different things, you need to make sure that the value of each thing is the same. Otherwise, the comparison will be false. For example, if I’m comparing two prices for an apartment, I can’t say that one apartment is better than another simply because it costs more. If I’m comparing apples and oranges, I can’t say that one apple is better than another simply because it costs more.

The famous economist John Maynard Keynes said: “It is no more appropriate to speak of a difference between the purchasing power of money in Germany and in Austria than it would be justifiable to conclude from differences between the prices charged by hotels on the peaks and in the valleys of the Alps that the objective exchange-value of money is different in the two situations and to formulate some such proposition as that the purchasing power of money varies inversely with the height above sea-level. The purchasing power of money is the same everywhere.”

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