NO PRODUCTION, NO CONSUMPTION. 🏭⚖️ You cannot consume what has not first been produced. Every meal. Every home. Every shirt. Every car. Every phone. Before it can be consumed, someone must produce it. Land. Labour. Capital. Enterprise. These are the foundations of production and production is the foundation of wealth for a nation. Demand tells producers what people want. Production makes it possible to have it. A government cannot create prosperity simply by ordering more spending, redistributing existing wealth, or stimulating demand while production is being strangled by taxes, regulation and political control. If production falls far enough, the consequences cannot be legislated away: Higher prices. Shortages. Rationing. Empty shelves. Falling living standards. There is no economic magic by which society can consume more than it produces for very long. Wealth must first be created before it can be consumed, saved, invested, traded or redistributed. That is why a free and prosperous economy must protect the conditions of production. Production first. Then consumption.