“Monetary speculation, in whatever form, must be based on some source of work that is capable of sustaining the level of returns. If such a source is not the working people of the country itself, it must be the laborers from another region. The point I wish to make is that all wealth, whatever its amount, has its source in some activity. Thus, if the level of speculation increases greatly, simultaneously those at the other end of the process – the workers – become poorer, and as the later become devastated, the means used to generate money with money will also eventually be decimated – and all collapse at the same time, as is now happening.
Work is the foundation not only of capital but of all social and psychological well-being as well. The Industrial Revolution was not a success then, nor is it now, because its objective was distorted; that is, the powerful put profit and money above work and, in so doing stifled the revolution and kept it from progressing.
When I say that Capitalism is doomed, I am not saying that capital should not exist; only that submission of the people to economic power must end. To earn from capital without working is theft; and to work without sharing in the capital involved is slavery; and in both cases the result is an imbalance.”
Work & Capital, Norberto Keppe
