Le montant total des richesses d'une nation est-il une grandeur constante ? Le paradoxe de Graslin

[eng] SUMMARY The author wishes to discuss the affirmation of 18th century French economist Grasiin for Iwhom the total amount of wealth is constant value It is not question of an objective monetary or technical evaluation of wealth which has very little significance but of subjective evaluation alluding to the idea of total sum of needs Iwhich is nothing but the love of well-being Consequently the absolute sum of the riches is com posed of the sum of loves of well-being and does not vary To understand this paradox it is necessary to set forth some postulates not explicit theory which form the basis of this reasoning But these postulates are very debatable and they come up against decisive objections Nevertheless the author recognizes an underlying element of truth in reasoning The love of well-being has its limits Consequently if we want to measure iwealth according to the amount of satisfaction pro cured from it the total sum of wealth evaluated is necessarily limited In his conclusion the author takes theory up again but under different form the total satisfaction that humanity draws from its riches undoubtedly varies very little and it is very indépendant of its total amount