Profit Distribution Quotes
The Great Depression, even more so than the Great Recession, shattered the faith of most people in the Capitalistic system as it was then operating. Conservatives like Stimson believed that reform could be achieved without diminishing the rights of the individual vis a vis the state. To a great extent he was right, but ironically, it tool a liberal like FDR and a Democratic Congress to make the necessary reforms the Republicans would not make and at the same time, not go so far as to reduce the freedom of individual action protected by the Constitution. Arguably, there are several areas where Americans have much more freedom in modern times than they did in 1929 when Hoover’s inaction brought on the Great Depression so severely. Today, minorities, women, dissidents, religions all have much more freedom that in 1929.
Karl Marx had argued that all profit and income from capital is exploitation. Aftalion rebutted Marks as this quotation illustrates.
At the time, this was not popular with many socialists who had given up on the lack of fairness and equity of the capitalistic system. A century later, most politicians and political philosophers had given up on socialism ever meeting Bauer’s test, and Capitalism was well ensconced in Western Democracies.
