Capital gains piled up. But the flow of funds the other way was nil. While the contribution of investment capital to production is small, workers produce all goods and services. Yet capitalists claim that the only reason for the existence of a corporation is to produce profit for stockholders. Kelly argues that this demand upon the earnings of business defies every reasoned conception of justice.
Capitalists contribute so little, yet they take so much.
This is a powerful case to debunk the moral superiority of the capitalist economy. Nevertheless, we are all familiar with the moralizing capitalist propaganda that posits the market as the manifest expression of individual liberty. Since this has been so drilled into all of us, in every office debate there will be some who will take up the capitalists' part. While they must accept Kelly's figures, they object that a fair and voluntary contract exists between workers and capitalists that justifies all the consequences of capitalism. After all, they protest, nobody is holding a gun to the workers' heads.