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# Economic Stagnation Symptoms

## Definition

The observable indicators that a nation's economy is at a standstill, including scanty maintenance of the labouring poor and their starving condition, which Smith presents as natural symptoms that things are going backwards.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 8

## Context

Identified as the opposite of prosperity symptoms, indicating economic decline and deteriorating conditions for the labouring classes.

## Economic Domain

General Theory
