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
As was said above, the method, or the ways and means, characteristic of
this superior business enterprise is a traffic in vendible capital. The
wealth gained in this field is commonly in the capitalised form, and
constitutes in each transaction, or "deal," a deduction or abstraction
from the capitalised wealth of the business community in favor of the
magnates or "interests" to whom the gains accrue. Its proximate aim is a
transfer of capitalised wealth from other capitalists to those who so
gain. This transfer or abstraction of capitalised wealth from the former
owners is commonly effected by an augmentation of the nominal capital,
based on a (transient) advantage inuring to the particular concerns
whose capitalisation is so augmented.[16] Any such increase of the
community's aggregate capitalisation, without a corresponding increase
of the material wealth on which the capitalisation is based, involves,
of course, in effect a redistribution of the aggregate capitalised
wealth; and in this redistribution the great financiers are in a
position to gain. The gains in question, it will be seen, come out of
the business community, out of invested wealth, and only remotely and
indirectly out of the community at large from which the business
community draws its income. These gains, therefore, are a tax on
commonplace business enterprise, in much the same manner and with much
the like effects as the gains of commonplace business (ordinary profits
and interest) are a tax on industry.[17]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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