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Preface
Wage and salary earners have endless problems to worry about - problems of wages
and prices, rents and mortgages, and how to provide against sickness,
unemployment and old age. The usual attitude is to regard these problems as ones
that can be dealt with by the trade unions or by new Acts of Parliament, and at each
General Election the Labour, Liberal and Tory Parties tell the voters about the new laws they
will introduce if they become the Government.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain views things differently. We say that the social system
itself needs to be changed fundamentally, that is, the class relationships and the way
production and distribution are carried on. This goes much deeper than a mere change of
government but it can never be brought about unless there is widespread understanding of
what needs to be done.
The first step towards understanding is to realise what are the relationships between the
owners of industry and the workers they employ, how wages and profits are determined, what
causes crises and so on. This pamphlet is intended as an aid to understanding these problems.
A word of explanation is necessary about the material in this pamphlet. It was written by a
Canadian worker, a member of our Companion Party, the Socialist Party of Canada, and then
published in America by the World Socialist Party of the U.S.A. For this reason it contains
references to political and economic events on the American continent which will, however,
present little difficulty to the reader in this country and are a useful reminder that the workers'
problems are essentially the same in all countries, and that the solution is the same –
Socialism!
Executive Committee
Socialist Party of Great Britain
April 1962
Page1
THE CAPITALIST
The Capitalist is a frequently misunderstood person. He is often portrayed in something
less than glowing terms. Not that his clothing is shoddy. Usually it is shown to be
carefully tailored and made of costly materials. But he is offered to us as a smirking,
pear-shaped specimen, lips folded over a fat cigar, whose weight is mainly
encompassed by his belt. Sometimes he appears as a banker, a big bad banker, who has
corralled all the money and won't let the rest of us have any except at impossible rates of
interest. Sometimes he turns up as a munition maker who plots to keep the world at war so
that he may sell his guns and tanks and other wares and keep the profits flowing in. Then,
again, he may be a landlord whose girth is gained from high rents on slum dwellings inhabited
by poor people.
He may be found in any of these categories, or he may be found in any of a number of other
categories equally distasteful. Indignant people are the ones who portray him in these terms.
People who believe that more of the good things of life could come to those in need if more
money or cheaper money were made available, or that wars could be reduced in number or
intensity if profits were removed from the sale of arms, or that better or cheaper housing
would be possible if curbs were placed on his bad habits. Indignant people, rebellious people,
people who see wrongs in society that must be righted, and who see in the capitalist the source
of so many of these wrongs.
Then there are other people who portray the capitalist differently. They see in him a public
benefactor, a philanthropist, a captain of industry, a financial genius, an all-round fine fellow.
Press reporters and politicians often tell of his benefactions and sterling qualities. Preachers
and elderly ladies dote on his philanthropies. Educators discourse on his industrial and
financial greatness. In the eyes of these good people he brings grace, goodness and distinction
to a society which, with all its faults, already scintillates with fine features.
The way people look upon society has much to do with the way they look upon the capitalist.
Those who see evils about them tend to place these evils at his door. Those who observe
instead blessings in modern life tend to credit him with these blessings. He is truly the object
of much attention.
And most of it is undeserved. It is unquestionably true that he picks up a dollar here and there
through colourful banking operations, the sale of guns, the renting of rat traps and other
indiscreet activities. And it is equally true that his industries provide jobs for people, that he
contributes generously to churches and charities, that he gives his support to all kinds of
groups engaged in social uplifting and public improvement, activities widely conceded to be
of worth. But he is really not much different from the rest of us. There may not be patches on
his britches or holes in his socks, or callouses where ours are. He may have better clothing, a
finer home, a more attractive bank balance. But he could walk along the road with any of us -
and who could determine which one owned the alarm clock?
The thing that makes him a capitalist is not the thing that makes him good or bad in people's
eyes. Most people don't even give a thought to the thing that makes him a capitalist. They
content themselves with some particular feature of his activities and judge him accordingly.
He is a wicked banker, a blood-stained munitions maker, a thieving landlord. Or else he is the
embodiment of many virtues.
2
The most important thing to note about the capitalist is that he is a member of an economic
category. He belongs to a class in society - the capitalist class. As such he shares with his
fellow capitalists in the ownership of the mills, mines, factories, in fact, all the means that
exist in society for producing and distributing the food, clothing, shelter and other things
needed for the preservation and enjoyment of human life. He and his kind own all these
things: the rest of society don't own them. It is this fact of ownership that determines in the
long run what he thinks and does and how he lives, and how the rest of us live.
Consider the position of the capitalist and his factory. Into the factory go raw materials and
workers and out of it come products that are sold in the market places to bring him a profit.
The profit does not originate in the market places. People who manipulate wealth in market
places do not in that way create profit; they simply shuffle it around in such a way that some
capitalists benefit at the expense of others. The profit is created by the workers in the factory.
It exists in that portion of the wealth which the workers produce in excess of their own wages.
Not all of it is profit but there is no profit to be found elsewhere. To increase the amount of
his profit the capitalist must improve the methods of production, or he must induce the
workers to work longer hours or at greater speed, or to accept lower wages. And unless he is
prepared to sweat in the factory beside the workers, a thought that is usually repellent to him,
there is not much else he can personally do about the profit except spend it. This he does with
all the assurance of one who is entitled to it.
The capitalist is a parasite. He lives without working. He lives on the results of other men's
toil and he is able to do this because he owns the means of production and distribution, a
condition that is neither necessary nor desirable but is allowed to continue because people
have not yet seen in it the source of most of the harm in modem society. For even those who
rise indignantly to condemn the capitalists, in most cases condemn only the 'wicked' ones.
To replace wicked capitalists with worthy ones will not end the exploitation of labour. The
workers will continue to live in need, in insecurity, in fear of the future, no matter what may
be the quality of those who occupy the high places. What is wrong in society is not the
wickedness of the capitalists but the wickedness of the capitalist system; and until this system
is replaced by one in which there are no capitalists, society can have no hope for a better life.
It is not proposed here to imprison or exterminate the capitalist; it is proposed simply to put
him in overalls and make him a useful member of the community.