<HTML><BODY><DIV style='font-family: "Verdana"; font-size: 10pt;'><DIV>  <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I don't know how to respond to that. It would appear from your <BR>>earlier remark (to the effect that a capitalist who doesn't work is <BR>>a rentier) that you distinguish the two according to whether the <BR>>individual voluntarily chooses to work or performs some useful <BR>>occupation in society. So a capitalist would be more moral as <BR>>measured against the Protestant Work Ethic than a rentier.---??<BR><BR>No. Just different, with different material interests. Just to pick <BR>one: a rentier is more concerned with keeping inflation down, while <BR>an industrial capitalist would prefer (if given a choice) a higher <BR>rate of growth. A rentier would prefer a high currency value, and a <BR>capitalist a lower one. But since these are intra-family quarrels, <BR>the differences are rarely profound. --Doug<BR><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">             </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">------------------------------<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">In fact, the rentier and industrial capitalist are often one and the same. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">GM just announced its intention to sell its most reliably profitable <o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">division, GMAC, a financial services operation.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">On the productive/unproductive thing, the gospel according to Marx, as I<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">understand him, is that capital is a self-expanding sum of values. At the end of<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">the story, the successful capitalist must end up with a sum of values greater than<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">the one s/he initially put in. Whether the increment to the initial capital invested comes<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">from manufacture, banking or real estate makes no diiference to the capitalist--or to </SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">the definition of one</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">. The "productive" capitalist doesn't necessarily work or make any contribution<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">to society.S/he simply owns capital that is deployed in production. Managerial functions</SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">can be left to hirelings.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The productive/unproductive distinction is theoretically important, however. The profits of</SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">unproductive capitalists--bankers, landlords, merchants--come from the sum of already existing values. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">These values are simply transferred from the pockets of creditors, tenants, customers, into theirs. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The increment of value realized by the owner of an auto plant, on the other hand, represents newly created value.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Its creation requires the purchase of labor power, the only commodity capable of generating more<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">value than that required for its reproduction. Marx says that capitalism is never fully established <o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">until it seizes hold of the sphere of production, the sphere in which comodities and hence value<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">and surplus value, are created.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">    </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV> <DIV class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"></SPAN></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>