The combination of quite lovely profit margins and the Republican tax reforms have led to much worrying about what companies like Apple are doing with all that extra cash. They’re just returning it to shareholders rather than investing it in their businesses! All of which shows there’s nothing quite so conservative as a progressive when there’s something to whine about.

It’s entirely true that we’d like society’s stock of capital (which includes profits made in the past) to be spent upon investment in advancing society into the future. Both deepening the capital base and also researching new shiny stuff are how we get more to enjoy in the future. But what is being missed is that there are two ways to do this, the old and the new.