ABSTRACT
On the economic side of the boundary, activities that are economically productive produce outputs that have utility. The reciprocal tautology of surplus and transfer theory is that output is what designated producers produce; those involved in producing output are productive laborers. This chapter compares scope, valuation, and netness across the two official national accounting schemes, the Keynesian System of National Accounts (SNA) and the Soviet Material Product System (MPS). The 1968 SNA description of government makes no reference to government activity as demanded by anyone other than government itself, and betrays an Adam Smith-flavored modism. The producers of government services furnish, but normally do not sell, to the community those common services which cannot otherwise be conveniently and economically provided, and administer the State and the economic and social policy of the community. Public-choice theory suggests that policy efforts of state authorities can be distorted by selfish attempts to generate good-looking numbers.
