ヨーゼフ・シュンペーターは、均衡への経済学的な執着を解体することからその批判を始める。彼は 経済生活の循環的流れ を、生きた現実ではなく、理論上の亡霊として位置づける。古典派の巨人たち——デヴィッド・リカード、 Thomas Malthus, and John Stuart Mill—envisioned a "stationary state" where the economy eventually settles into a routine, Schumpeter argues this is a fatal misunderstanding of the system's nature.
The Classical Trap
Classical economists viewed capitalism through a science of scarcity. They believed that atomistic market capitalism would inevitably reach a dead-end of zero growth. In this view, tomorrow is merely a repetition of today. Schumpeter calls this the static economy—a useful mathematical model for textbooks, but a failure at describing reality.
The Profitless Routine
Schumpeter’s most radical claim is this: "In a static economy there is no place for profit!" In a Circular flow that never alters or expands its creation of wealth, prices perfectly equal costs. What we perceive as profit is merely the "wages of management" or rent. True economic surplus only arises when the flow is broken by change.