The productive force of labour increased by capitalism must be seized by the workers to ensure well-being for all
Any city who were to guarantee the necessaries of life to its inhabitants would be compelled to take possession of what is absolutely needed for production. Capital in the hands of private owners would be expropriated, to be returned to the community. The great harm done by bourgeois society is not only that capitalists seize a large share of the profits of each industrial and commercial enterprise, thus enabling themselves to live without working (the wealth of the rich is derived from the poverty of the poor), but that all production has taken a wrong direction, as it is not carried on with a view to securing well-being to all.
It is absolutely impossible that mercantile production should be carried on in the interest of all. To desire it would be to expect the capitalist to go beyond their province and to fulfil duties that they cannot fulfil without ceasing to be what they are—a private manufacturer seeking their own enrichment. Capitalist organization, based on the personal interest of each individual employer of labour, has given to society all that could be expected of it. it has increased the productive force of labour. But to attribute other duties to them would be unreasonable. For example, to expect that they should use this superior yield of labour in the interest of society as a whole, would be to ask them to engage in philanthropy and charity, and a capitalist enterprise cannot be based on charity.
It now remains for society, first, to extend this greater productivity, which is limited to certain industries, and to apply it to the general good. But it is evident that to utilize this high productivity of labour, so as to guarantee well-being to all, society must itself take possession of all means of production.
References
- Kropotkin, Peter. (1892). The Conquest of Bread Chapter 8. Ways and means (p. 142).