Science Quote by Paul Dirac

Dirac, the poet of quantum mechanics, turns that cool, reductionist gaze on capitalism and finds a paradox that still reads like a diagnosis. A “shortage of buyers” sounds like a failure of desire, as if consumers have suddenly become ascetics. Dirac flips it: the problem isn’t wanting stuff, it’s fearing the trade. People aren’t refusing goods; they’re refusing to surrender assets that generate dependable income. In other words, the bottleneck is not appetite but security.

The intent is quietly radical. Coming from a physicist, the line has the clipped authority of a conservation law: spending isn’t just money leaving your pocket, it’s income streams collapsing. Dirac’s phrasing smuggles in a critique of how modern economies lean on expectations of regular returns. If your bond, savings, or productive capital is the thing keeping you stable, exchanging it for consumables feels like swapping a renewable resource for a one-time hit. Demand doesn’t disappear; it freezes.

The subtext is also a warning about inequality and risk. Only some people hold “something which might earn a regular income,” and when uncertainty spikes, those holders become even more reluctant to cash out. The result is a familiar downward spiral: less spending, weaker sales, fewer jobs, more anxiety - reinforcing the hoarding impulse.

Contextually, Dirac is gesturing toward depression-era dynamics and the broader Keynes-era debate: markets don’t always self-correct, because humans aren’t frictionless particles. They optimize for safety, not textbook “utility,” and the entire system can seize up on that perfectly rational fear.