The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other EssaysVeblen, Thorstein
Philosophy
The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays
Veblen, Thorstein
Economics; Science
In the hands of these workmen--the industrial community, the bearers of
the immaterial, technological equipment--the capital goods owned by the
capitalist become a "means of production." Without them, or in the
hands of men who do not know their use, the goods in question would be
simply raw materials, somewhat deranged and impaired through having been
given the form which now makes them "capital goods." The more proficient
the workmen in their mastery of the technological expedients involved,
and the greater the facility with which they are able to put these
expedients into effect, the more productive will be the processes in
which the workmen turn the employer's capital goods to account. So,
also, the more competent the work of "superintendence," the foreman-like
oversight and correlation of the work in respect of kind, speed, volume,
the more will it count in the aggregate of productive efficiency. But
this work of correlation is a function of the foreman's mastery of the
technological situation at large and his facility in proportioning one
process of industry to the requirements and effects of another. Without
this due and sagacious correlation of the processes of industry, and
their current adaptation to the demands of the industrial situation at
large, the material equipment engaged would have but slight efficiency
and would count for but little in the way of capital goods. The
efficiency of the control exercised by the master-workman, engineer,
superintendent, or whatever term may be used to designate the
technological expert who controls and correlates the productive
processes,--this workmanlike efficiency determines how far the given
material equipment is effectually to be rated as "capital goods."
Through all this functioning of the workman and the foreman the
capitalist's business ends are ever in the background, and the degree of
success that attends his business endeavors depends, other things equal,
on the efficiency with which these technologists carry on the processes
of industry in which he has invested. His working arrangements with
these workmen, the bearers of the immaterial equipment engaged, enables
the capitalist to turn the processes for which his capital goods are
adapted to account for his own profit, but at the cost of such a
deduction from the aggregate product of these processes as the workmen
may be able to demand in return for their work. The amount of this
deduction is determined by the competitive bidding of other capitalists
who may have use for the same lines of technological efficiency, in the
manner set forth by writers on wages.
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