WHO IS THE CAPITALIST?

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1921, Page 5

WHO IS THE CAPITALIST?

A QUESTION WORTH CONSIDERING (Contributed by the New Zealand Welfare League.) People are in the habit of talking about the “Capitalist” a* if he was some great being, or power, outside of ourselves. Is he* Who is the Capitalist? In the first instance anyone who owns a bit of capital is a Capitalist. By capital is meant any form of wealth that may be used, to produce more wealth. The rough spade of the early native was hi* capital; the food he had stored was his capital. In society the capitalist is just the man who has saved a bit. How he saved it in general is that he was satisfied to spend less than he earned, or in working he did his level best and earned more than he immediately required. You say the “Capitalfst” means more than that. Well if we take the word to mean not only those who own but who use and lend capital —all right! To-day it is not the few but the many who use capital. The number also of those who lend capital is very great in every modern state. Who is the Capitalist? Why, the man or woman or •ven child who has a little money in the Savings Bank is in a small way a Capitalist. The electors of a Dominion that owns mines, railways, telegraph system, land, buildings etc., are all capitalists in having a joint ownership in all the capital of the Dominion. Similarly each citizen is joined with his fellow citizens in possessing the capital which the city owns, uses and on occasions lends. Who is the Capitalist? Truly with the democratization of modern institutions the difficulty is to find any who are not in some degree capitalists. In thia country the people who are not capitalists are like those who are not workers, “few and far between.” We are all of the possessing class and it is only a question of degrees as to the extent of possession. WHAT GOOD IS A CAPITALIST? The answer is that many enterprises would not be undertaken but for the rhap who “takes a chance. The Capitalist Is the one who “takes a chance.” He puts up the stakes very often in the form of buildings, machinery, staff, wages etc., and chances selling the goods. Sometimes he profits big on his venture, sometimes little, and sometimes he comes a cropper. The good of him is that somebody must run the risks. The many thousands who run the risks of putting their little savings into industrial, commercial, and other companies are all Capitalists taking a rhance. The good of them is that by their enterprises they are finding the means of keeping the Nation sound and healthy. Sometimes those who invest their capital for them are taken to be the Capitalist when, in point of fact they are only the directors and operators of the machine—the people themselves are the Capitalists. Our present-day machine of industry, trade and commerce is complex because it is universal in application and deals with the great variety of human wants. To abolish the Capitalist is absurd. It means abolishing ourselves. The line of progress cannot follow that course with success.