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By Punkerslut
"All that man values is created by his industry..."
--J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi, "Political Economy," 1815, Chapter 2
"...wealth never can come in but by the produce of labour going out..."
--James Steuart, "The Principles of Political Economy," 1767, Book 1, Chapter 14
"... the strongest and most industrious majority, which supports the whole society."
--Leo Tolstoy, "To the Tsar and His Assistants," 1901.
"Every thing in the world is purchased by labour..."
--David Hume, "Of Commerce," 1752.
"The great body of the people make all the money; do all the work. They plow the land, cut down the forests; they produce everything that is produced. Then who shall say what shall be done with what is produced except the producer?"
--Robert Green Ingersoll, "Centennial Oration," 1876
"...labour makes the far greatest part of the value of things we enjoy in this world; and the ground which produces the materials is scarce to be reckoned in as any, or at most, but a very small part of it; so little, that even amongst us, land that is left wholly to nature, that hath no improvement of pasturage, tillage, or planting, is called, as indeed it is, waste; and we shall find the benefit of it amount to little more than nothing."
-- John Locke, "Second Treatise on Government," 1690, Chapter 5
All wealth is the product of labor. But we are living in a world where the laborers do not own the wealth they create. Instead, we are living on a planet where the few, idle Capitalists own the majority of wealth.
We the workers are responsible for all wealth. But we are completely excluded from owning or managing this wealth. We aren't allowed to direct how the means of production are organized, or what they're organized for. We aren't allowed to receive the whole product of our labor, since a Capitalist exploits us to support their opulent luxury. From the hours we work to the products available on the market -- nobody consults the creators of wealth on how productive property should be organized and directed.
There are some who argue that workers alone aren't responsible for all wealth. They'll say that workers need machinery and land, provided by the Capitalist, to labor and create wealth. These people forget that the machinery was made by the workers -- and the land, itself, was made useful by the workers. These aren't things "added" by the Capitalist; they are things exploited out of their natural creators -- the working class. It is similar with innovation, where companies steal technologies created by their employees -- from the earliest machinery to Nikola Tesla's automobile engine.
Everything is society is created by the workers. Why, then, is it that the workers are the least benefitted from this wealth? It is because of the Capitalist system! If workers were to manage the businesses themselves, they could organize the industries for the benefit of all. Instead, we are living in society where businesses are managed by the few -- so, they only benefit the few.
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