Capitalism; Imperialism; Saving and investment; Socialism
because part of it is needed to enlarge production, for technical
improvements which, to the individual entrepreneur, will be a necessary
condition of existence in a competitive society. Secondly, because an
expanding capitalist production implies an expansion in those branches
of industry which produce means of production (e.g. the mining industry,
the machine industry and so forth) and whose products from the very
beginning take a use-form that is incapable of personal consumption and
can only function as capital. Thirdly and lastly, the higher labour
productivity and capital savings that can be achieved by mass production
of cheap commodities increasingly impel society towards mass production
of commodities which cannot all be consumed by a mere handful of
capitalists.
Although one capitalist can realise his surplus value in the surplus
product of another capitalist and _vice versa_, this is only true for
products of a certain branch, for consumer goods. However, the incentive
of capitalist production is not the satisfaction of personal wants, and
this is further shown by the progressive decline in the production of
consumer as compared to that of producer goods.
'Thus we see that the aggregate product of a capitalist nation must
greatly exceed the requirements of the whole industrial population
employed, in the same way as each individual factory produces vastly in
excess of the requirements of both its workers and the entrepreneur, and
this is entirely due to the fact that the nation is a capitalist
nation, because the distribution of resources within the society does
not aim to satisfy the real wants of the population but only the
effective demand. Just as an individual factory-owner could not maintain
himself as a capitalist even for a day if his market were confined to
the requirements of his workers and his own, so the home market of a
developed capitalist nation must also be insufficient.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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