Socialism: A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist PrinciplesSpargo, John
History
Socialism: A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles
Spargo, John
Socialism
Startling as these figures are, it will be evident upon reflection that
they do not adequately represent the amount of wealth concentration. The
occupational basis is not quite satisfactory as applied to the richest
class. It serves for the proletarian class, of course, and for a very
large part of the middle class. In these classes, as a rule, the
_occupied_ persons represent wealth ownership. But this is by no means
true of the richest class. In this class we have a very considerable
proportion of the wealth owned by _unoccupied_ persons, such as the
wives rich in their own right, children and other unoccupied members of
families rich by inheritance. Mr. Henry Laurens Call, in a paper read
before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at
Columbia University, at the end of 1906, made these figures the basis of
the startling estimate that one per cent of our population own not less
than ninety per cent of our total wealth.
There is a peculiarity of modern capitalism which enables the great
capitalists to control vastly more wealth than they own. Take any group
of large capitalists, and it will be found that they _control_ a much
greater volume of capital than they _own_. The invested capital of a
multitude of small investors is in their keeping, and they can and do
use it for purposes of their own. Thus we have a concentration of
capitalist control which goes far beyond the concentration of ownership.
And this concentration of the essential control of the capital of a
country becomes more and more important each year. It is recognized
to-day that the most important capitalist is not he who himself owns the
greatest amount of capital, but he who controls the greatest amount,
quite irrespective of its ownership.
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